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THE  CONTROL  OF 
PARENTHOOD 


BY 


Prof.  J.  ARTHUR  THOMSON,  M.A.,  LL.D. 

Prof.  LEONARD  HILL.  M.D.,  F.R.S. 

The  Very  Rev.  DEAN  INGE,  C.V.O.,  D.D. 

Mr.  HAROLD  COX  (Editor  Edinburgh  Review) 

Dr.  MARY  SCHARLIEB,  M.D.,  C.B.E.,  M.S. 

Sir  RIDER  HAGGARD,  K.B.E. 

Rev.  Principal  A.  E.  GAR  VIE,  M.A.,  D.D. 

Rev.  F.  B.  MEYER,  B.A.,  D.D. 
Dr.  MARIE  STOPES,  D.Sc.,  Ph.D.,  F.L.S. 

Introduction  by  THE  BISHOP  OF  BIRMINGHAM 


EDITED   BY 

JAMES  MARCHANT 

LL.D.,  C.b!e.,  F.R.S.ED. 
SBCRETARY  OF  THE  NATIONAL  BIRTH-RATE  COMMISSION,  ETC. 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 

Zhc  f(nicfterboc^er  pteas 

1920 


Copyright,  1920 

BY 

G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 


A^ 


INTRODUCTION 

No  one  can  be  doubtful  as  to  the  usefulness  of 
this  book.  We  are  living  in  days  when  all  are 
confessing  the  responsibility  of  Parenthood, 
but  we  find  it  difficult  to  know  our  duty 
because  we  get  such  different  guidance,  and 
because  there  seems  sometimes  to  be  conflict 
between  that  which  is  true  biologically  or 
economically,  and  that  which  appeals  to  us 
from  the  religious  or  social  point  of  view.  It 
is  well  then  that  we  should  have  all  sides  put 
before  us  by  those  who  are  experts  in  their 
own  particular  subject,  so  that  for  whatever 
decision  we  may  come  to,  we  may  be  able  to 
give  a  reason  for  the  faith  that  is  in  us. 

We  are  clear  upon  certain  central  facts  as  to 
marriage  and  parenthood,  which  one  may 
attempt  to  summarize.  First — Marriage 
should  be  the  outcome  of  a  pure  love,  and 


vi  INTRODUCTION 

should  be  entered  upon  with  the  most  sacred 
intention  that  perfect  union  shall  follow  upon 
the  vows  spoken  on  the  wedding-day.  The 
\inion  must  be  both  physical  and  spiritual,  and 
each  of  these  parts  completes  the  other.  The 
physical  imion  is  mere  passion  when  the  whole 
nature  is  not  alive  to  the  oneness  of  the  two 
souls ;  the  spiritual  knows  its  perfect  complete- 
ness only  when  the  parents  tend  and  cherish 
the  child  which  is  the  outcome  of  their  two 
natures.  Second — It  is  admitted  that  in  an 
ideal  state  of  society  the  intention  of  the 
father  is  that  his  children  should  mate  in  early 
adult  life,  and  that  they  should  bring  into  this 
world  healthy  children  to  be  reared  up  as  use- 
fiil  citizens.  Third — It  is  imforttmately  true 
that  the  circimistances  of  present-day  life  do 
not  allow  of  such  happy  mating.  We  are 
cursed  by  man-made  social  conditions  which 
make  it  impossible  for  yoimg  folk  to  marry 
at  the  natural  age,  and  which  frequently  cause 
marriages  to  be  arranged  for  purely  worldly 
reasons.  Hence  come  irregular  imions  and 
conditions  of  life  leading  to  immorality  and  to 


INTRODUCTION  vii 

prostitution.  Foiirth — Consequent  upon  this 
unsatisfactory  state  of  things,  we  find  that 
books  have  to  be  written,  conferences  have  to 
be  held,  judgments  have  to  be  formed  to  fit 
in  with  "the  present  distress,"  and  not  with 
the  perfect  freedom  which  should  be  asso- 
ciated with  the  primal  marriage.  What  are 
the  problems  which  face  alike  the  eugenist, 
the  social  worker,  the  religious  teacher? 

There  is  first  the  antechamber  to  matri- 
mony. How  are  the  yoxmg  to  be  taught  the 
sacredness  as  to  body,  the  purity  of  heart  and 
the  whole-souled  offering  of  themselves  implied 
in  the  word  love?  Marriage  is  not  to  be  the 
satisfaction  of  rash  desire,  or  the  calculated 
assurance  of  a  comfortable  home,  it  is  the 
tinion  of  twin  souls.  Here  the  parents,  the 
religious  and  the  secular  teachers,  with  whole- 
some literature,  must  all  have  their  share  in 
rousing  chivalry  and  in  impressing  the  great 
ideal. 

There  is  next  the  wedded  life  to  consider. 
The  couple  must  live  one  for  the  other,  giving 
honour  one  to  the  other,  and  they  must  view 


viii  INTRODUCTION 

the  office  of  Parenthood  as  awful  in  its  majesty 
and  beauty.  Not  merely  to  bring  children 
into  the  world,  but  to  bring  in  fit  children 
whom  they  can  rightly  bring  up  must  be  their 
determination.  This  may  entail  self-denial, 
but  nothing  is  perfect  without  sacrifice.  A 
wise  doctor  is  an  almost  necessary  friend  and 
confidant  for  any  married  couple.  The  teach- 
ing of  the  chapters  of  this  book  will  surely  be 
of  great  use  to  wedded  lives,  as  well  as  to  those 
contemplating  matrimony. 

There  is  again  the  duty  of  the  State  to  be 
remembered.  It  must  be  seen  to  that  every 
mother  shall  have  during  and  after  child- 
bearing  the  necessary  physical  and  moral  help ; 
that  every  child  shall  be  cared  for  so  that  in- 
efficients  shall  be  almost  imknown,  and  true 
citizens  shall  abound;  that  undue  temptation 
shall  not  assail  the  young,  and  that  sin  shall 
not  abound;  that  the  diseases  incidental  to 
impurity  shall  not  be  allowed  to  rage  im- 
checked ;  that  men  and  women  shall  know  the 
dangers  which  belong  to  lust ;  that  we  shall  all 
imderstand  how  we  depend  one  upon  the  other ; 


INTRODUCTION  ix 

that  whether  by  emigration  or  other  means 
care  may  be  had  for  those  to  whom  here  at 
home  the  joys  of  marriage  are  denied;  and 
above  all,  that  the  State  shall  bear  in  mind 
that  upon  the  recognition  of  God  in  all  that 
concerns  marriage  and  parenthood  depends 
the  future  well-being  of  the  land  we  love,  and 
of  the  people  upon  whom  it  would  seem  that 
at  the  present  time  rests  the  greatest  re- 
sponsibility for  setting  a  world-wide  example 
of  the  highest  and  best  in  life. 

May  the  writers  of  the  pages  of  this  book 
have  the  satisfaction  of  contributing,  as  I  feel 
stire  they  will,  to  the  realization  of  the  dreams 
which  reading  their  utterances  have  stirred  in 
me! 

H.  R.  Birmingham. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTION 

The  Lord  Bishop  of  Birmingham      .         .        v 

BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS 
r>  I.  Prof.  J.  Arthur  Thomson  .        .        3 

II.  Prof.  Leonard  Hill  ...      32 

ECONOMIC  ASPECTS 
^         I.   The  Very  Rev.  Dean  Inge         .         .       58 
II.  Mr.  Harold  Cox      ....      75 

SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS 
\  I.   Dr.  Mary  Scharlieb         ...       96 

II.  Rev.  Dr.  F.  B.  Meyer       .         .         .138 

III.  Rev.  Principal  Dr.  A.  E.  Garvie  .     158 

IMPERIAL  AND  RACIAL  ASPECTS 
I  I.  Sir  Rider  Haggard  .         .        .         .179 

»  II.   Dr.  Marie  C.  Stopes         .         .         .     207 


THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 


The  Control  of  Parenthood 


BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS 
I 
By  Prof.  J.  Arthur  Thomson,  MA.,  LL.D. 

§  I.     Various  Aspects  of  Social  Problems 

Any  social  problem  may  be  considered  in  a 
variety  of  aspects,  each  of  which  is  partial  or 
abstract,  (a)  It  may  be  considered  in  rela- 
tion to  the  physical  criterion  of  economy  in 
the  transformation  of  energy.  This  economy 
is  one  of  the  preconditions  of  what  we  call 
progress,  but  to  be  preoccupied  with  it  spells 
materialism,  (b)  The  problem  may  also  be 
considered  in  relation  to  the  biological  criterion 
of  health — in  the  deepest  and  highest  sense  of 

3 


4' ■  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

that  term.  The  securing  of  health  is,  again, 
one  of  the  preconditions  of  progress ;  yet  to  be 
preoccupied  with  the  "healthy  animal"  aspect 
is  apt  to  lead  to  a  fallacious  biologism,  except 
in  the  minds  of  those  who  tmderstand  some- 
thing of  the  tmity  of  the  organism  and  tinder- 
stand  that  health  is  subtly  correlated  with 
beauty  and  the  enjoyment  of  it,  with  goodness 
and  the  doing  of  it,  even  with  truth  and  the 
seeking  of  it.  (c)  What  we  really  mean  by 
progress  in  htmian  affairs  is  a  balanced  move- 
ment of  a  social  whole  towards  a  fuller  em- 
odiment  of  the  supreme  values  (the  true, 
tfefe  beautiful,  and  the  good)  in  conditions 
which  increasingly  realize  the  fundamental 
physical  and  biological  conditions  of  stability 
and  persistence,  and  in  lives  which  are  in- 
creasingly rewards  in  themselves,  both  in- 
dividually and  socially.  This  definition  may 
seem  rather  cumbrous  to  serve  as  level  and 
plummet  and  square,  but  it  is  needed  for 
secure  building. 

If  we  decide  that  a  certain  course  of  action 
will  increase  or  save  material  resources — a 


BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  5 

laudable  aim  in  itself — ^we  have  further  to 
inquire  whether  it  will  make  for  the  health  of 
the  commimity  and  the  conservation  and  in- 
creasing possession  of  beauty,  goodness,  and 
truth.  Similarly,  if  we  decide  that  a  certain 
course  of  action  will  make  for  health,  we  must 
not  follow  the  example  of  those  hasty  reformers 
who  leap  to  the  conclusion  that  the  change 
contemplated  will  necessarily  make  for  pro- 
gress.  The  biological  proposal  must  also  be 
brought  before  the  august  tribtmal  of  the 
highest  values.  For  "life  is  more  than  food.'' 
These  are,  it  may  be  said,  very  obvious 
considerations.  If  so,  they  are  continually 
disregarded  both  in  argument  and  in  practice. 
We  put  them  in  the  foregrotmd  of  our  dis- 
cussion here,  which  considers  some  of  the 
population  problems  from  the  biological  side. 
What  wins  the  approval  of  the  biologist  as 
biological  may  not  be  practicable  or  desirable 
socially.  On  the  other  hand,  no  social  proposals 
which  nm  cotinter  to  biological  or  physical  cri- 
teria can  be  radically  sound ;  for  social  progress 
has  biological  and  physical  pre-conditions. 


THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 
§  2.     The  Survival  Value  of  Fertility 

The  phrase  ''the  struggle  for  existence," 
which  only  the  careless  think  it  easy  to  under- 
stand, is  a  technical  and,  at  the  same  time,  a 
metaphorical  term.  It  includes  all  the  in- 
dividually variable  answers-back  which  living 
creatures  make  to  environing  difficulties  and 
limitations — everything  that  is  tried  in  the 
clash  between  life  and  circumstances.  It  need 
not  be  directly  competitive;  it  need  not  be 
literally  bloody;  it  need  not  even  be  selective! 
When  it  is  keen  enough,  however,  and  when 
there  is  considerable  variability  or  inequality 
in  the  individual  reactions,  and  when  it  lasts 
in  the  same  form  for  a  considerable  time,  it 
may  lead  to  natural  selection — certain  var- 
iants surviving  a  virtue  of  qualities  of  relative 
fitness.  Some  survive  because  they  are  strong, 
others  because  they  are  clever,  others  because 
they  find  a  cave  of  Adullam,  others  because 
they  are  agile,  and  others  because  they  have 
put  on  a  garment  of  invisibility.  Professor 
Punnett  calculates  that  if  in  a  population  of 


BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  7 

ten  thousand  wild  animals  in  a  district  there 
were  ten  of  a  new  and  promising  variety, 
which  had  a  five  per  cent,  selection  advantage 
over  the  original  forms,  the  latter  would 
almost  completely  disappear  in  less  than  a 
htmdred  generations.  We  know  of  such  re- 
placements occurring  in  wild  nature,  and  it  is 
plain  that  the  rate  of  replacement  of  the  old 
by  the  new  will  depend  in  part  on  the  fertility 
of  the  new. 

i  Intense  elimination  of  individuals  without 
a  certain  life-saving  peculiarity  or  variation 
will  move  a  species  in  a  particular  direction. 
This  is  what  is  called  lethal  selection.  We 
might  compare  it  roughly  to  what-  happens 
when  we  improve  a  lawn  by  eliminating  the 
weeds.  But  it  is  also  clear  that  variants  with 
a  valuable  life-saving  quality  will  become  the 
dominant  type  more  rapidly  if  they  are  also 
much  more  prolific  than  their  neighbours. 
This  is  what  is  called  reproductive  selection. 
We  might  compare  it  roughly  to  what  hap- 
pens when  we  improve  a  lawn  by  using 
some  fertilizer  which  stimulates  the  multi- 


8      THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

plication  of  the  grass,  but  does  not  help  the 
weeds. 

As  we  look  around  among  plants  and 
animals  we  see  that  many  of  them  are  prodig- 
iously fertile.  A  common  weed,  Sisymbrium 
Sophia,  often  has  three  quarters  of  a  million 
seeds;  if  all  grew  to  maturity  for  only  three 
years  the  whole  of  the  land-surface  of  the 
globe  would  not  hold  them.  A  British  starfish, 
Luidia,  has  two  himdred  million  eggs.  If  all 
the  progeny  of  one  oyster  survived  and  mul- 
tiplied, its  great-great-grand-offspring  would 
nimiber  sixty-six  with  thirty-three  noughts 
after  it,  and  the  heap  of  shells  would  be  eight 
times  the  size  of  our  earth,  ''which  is  absurd" 
we  may  well  say;  but  these  familiar  possibili- 
ties illustrate  what  might  be  called  the  spawn- 
ing solution  or  the  fertility  solution  of  the 
difficulties  of  life.  It  is  not  merely  that  the 
species  in  question  is  helped  to  hold  its  own  by 
its  fertility,  surviving  not  necessarily  because 
it  is  strong  or  clever,  but  because  it  is  many; 
we  must  remember  that  if  the  quality  of  fer- 
tility should  become  differential,  should  in- 


BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  9 

crease,  for  instance,  in  a  new  variation  or 
mutation,  it  will  operate  as  a  factor  in  in- 
traspecific  change. 

There  are  some  obvious  advantages  in  the 
spawning  or  fertility  method  of  circumventing 
difficulties.  It  may  save  the  organism  from  be- 
ing embarrassed  by  the  need  for  parental  care. 
With  a  family  of  a  million,  there  is  considerable 
margin  for  accidents,  and  there  is  no  great 
need  for  nursing.  The  multiplication  may  be 
concentrated  in  a  short  period  of  the  year,  or 
to  one  occasion  in  a  life-time,  leaving  most  of 
the  life  free  for  other  concerns.  On  the  other 
hand,  there  are  obvious  disadvantages.  The 
production  of  large  numbers  is  apt  to  involve 
the  exhaustion  of  the  parent,  notably  of  the 
mother.  Thus  we  see  not  only  delicate  crea- 
tures like  butterflies,  but  strong  creatures  like 
marine  lampreys,  dying  after  reproduction. 
We  speak  of  this  as  a  disadvantage,  but  it  is 
so,  of  course,  only  from  our  point  of  view.  It 
precludes  what  we  would  regard  as  of  a  high 
value — e.g,  a  long  vigorous  life  and  the  com- 
panionship of  offspring;  but  it  is  clearly  a  line 


10  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

of  solution  that  pays  well  in  certain  animal 
races. 

§  3.     Economized  Reproductivity 

Many  races  of  living  creatures  are  helped 
to  hold  their  own  by  their  great  fertility,  but 
there  is  another  line  of  solution  not  less  fa- 
miliar— economized  reproduction  associated 
with  increased  parental  care.  The  reduction 
in  the  number  of  offspring  is  more  than  com- 
pensated for  by  the  correlated  re(^uction  of  the 
infantile  mortality,  by  giving  the  offspring  a 
really  good  start.  What  has  actually  happened 
in  the  course  of  evolution  we  can  only  infer 
from  analogy,  but  in  all  probability  there  were 
synchronous  variations  in  the  direction  of 
reduced  reproductivity  on  the  one  hand,  and 
in  the  direction  of  better  equipment  or  nurture 
of  the  offspring  on  the  other.  An  old-world 
type  such  as  Peripatus,  without  armour  and 
weapons,  has  held  its  own  in  most  parts  of  the 
world  for  millions  of  years,  partly  in  virtue  of 
its  nocturnal  and  elusive  habits,  but  partly 


BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  ii 

because  the  young  are  carried  before  birth 
for  a  very  long  time  and  are  bom  as  miniature 
adults,  ready  almost  at  once  to  fend  for  them- 
selves. This  is  the  antithesis  of  the  spawning 
solution,  but  it  is  equally  successful. 

Compared  with  fishes  and  amphibians,  most 
of  which  ''spawn,**  birds  and  mammals  illus- 
trate economized  reproductivity  and  parental 
care.  It  is  a  contrast  of  evolutionary  tactics, 
and  it  might,  of  course,  be  illustrated  not  only 
by  contrasting  mammal  with  fish,  but  by  con- 
trasting the  large  litters  of  rats  with  the  single 
offspring  normal  among  monkeys.  On  the 
whole  it  seems  fair  to  say  that  the  reduction 
of  fertility,  contrasted  with  ''spawning," 
means  that  a  larger  fraction  of  the  year  and  of 
the  life  is  concerned  with  reproduction  in  the 
case  of  the  mother-animals.  But  the  other 
side  of  it  is  that  the  parental  life  is  enriched 
by  the  prolonged  association  with  the  offspring, 
and  that  the  protected  infancy  makes  the  re- 
placement of  instincts  by  intelligence  more 
practicable.  The  important  general  fact  is 
that  man,   however  diverse  his  fertility  in 


12  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

different  races  and  in  different  sections  of  the 
community,  is  assuredly  on  that  tact  of  econo- 
mized reproductivity  and  elaborated  parental 
care  which  marks  the  higher  vertebrates.  The 
suggestion  is  that  he  should  go  f tirther  in  the 
same  direction. 

§  4.     Herbert  Spencer's  Generalization  as  to 
Individtcation  and  Genesis 

After  a  prolonged  argimient  in  his  Principles 
of  Biology,  Herbert  Spencer  reached  the  con- 
clusion that  genesis  decreases  as  individuation 
increases,  the  two  varying  in  inverse  ratio. 
Individuation  means  complexity,  integration, 
fulness,  and  freedom  of  life.  The  tapeworm 
with  its  degenerate  body  and  drifting  life  of 
ease  has  its  millions  of  embryos;  the  Golden 
Eagle  with  its  differentiated  body  and  con- 
trolled life  has  two  eaglets  at  a  time.  The  less 
individuated  organisms  tend  to  the  spawning 
solution;  the  more  individuated  to  economized 
reproduction. 

Now,  it  must  be  noted  that  what  Spencer 


BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  13 

really  showed  was  the  fact  that  individuation 
and  genesis  tend  to  be  in  inverse  ratio.  This 
is  an  evolutionary  result,  a  state  of  affairs  that 
has  come  about.  He  also  sought  to  explain 
that  the  result  was  in  agreement  with  general 
physiological  considerations,  but  he  certainly 
did  not  prove  that  high  individuation  directly 
lessens  fertility.  Perhaps  it  does,  but  we  do 
not  know.  Very  little  is  known  in  regard  to 
the  physiology  of  fertility. 

Men  of  great  ability,  who  illustrate  inborn  ^^, 
individuation,  are  often  childless.  But  this 
may  be  due  to  mutual,  not  absolute,  infertility. 
We  know  very  little  in  regard  to  the  meaning 
of  nonpathological  sterility.  It  is  easy  to  ask 
for  the  children  of  many  of  the  great  men  of 
the  world — ^Aristotle,  St.  Paul,  Descartes, 
Newton,  Htmie,  Leibnitz,  Kant,  Kelvin,  and 
so  on;  but  it  is  not  difficult  to  compile  a  fair'  \ 
list  of  famous  fathers — Darwins,  Herschels, 
Bemouillis,  Jussieus,  Hookers.  Sir  Walter 
Scott  was  a  seventh  son;  John  Wesley  was  one 
of  nineteen ;  Tennyson  one  of  seven. 

The  average  size  of  the  family  among  well- 


14    THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

educated  people,  who  illustrate  acquired  in- 
dividuation at  least,  is  usually  small — under 
two  among  college-bred  gentlefolk  in  the 
United  States — ^but  it  would  be  rash  to  con- 
clude that  this  is  the  expression  of  a  constitu- 
tional decrease  of  fecimdity.  It  is  probable 
that  a  reduction  of  fertility  among  the  highly 
individuated  may  be  in  part  due  to  the  fre- 
quency of  marriages  that  are  not  love  marri- 
ages, to  the  frequency  of  late  marriages,  to 
selfish  or  timid  non-maternity,  to  deliberate 
evasion  of  parentage,  and  even  to  overstrain 
in  early  efforts  after  self-realization.  But 
this  is  not  evidence  of  a  constitutional 
antithesis  between  high  individuation  and 
reproductivity.  The  strongly  individuated 
Brahmins  and  Rajputs  of  high  caste  are 
said  to  show  no  dwindling  fertility. 

In  addition  to  factors  already  indicated,  it 
should  be  noted  that  improved  conditions  of 
life  tend  to  lessen  miiltiplication  indirectly,  for 
new  interests  divert  the  animal  nature  and 
better  housing  lessens  the  provocations  to 
sensuaHty.    A  reasonable  spacing  out  of  births 


BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  15 

is  more  likely  to  be  affected,  and  the  total 
ntimber  of  children  is  less  likely  to  be  large. 
Without  denying  the  occurrence  of  types  who 
are  constitutionally  sterile,  or  relatively  in- 
fertile, or  with  strongly  inhibited  sex-impulses, 
we  would  say  that  almost  nothing  is  known  as 
to  their  relative  frequency  or  as  to  their  in- 
crease or  decrease  in  successive  generations; 
and  that  apparent  infertility  among  the  highly 
individuated  can  be  in  great  part  accoimted 
for  as  an  indirect  result.  There  is  very  little 
evidence  that  heightened  individuation  brings 
about  lessened  reproductivity  as  a  physiologi- 
cal consequence. 

§  5.     Fluctuations  of  Fertility  • 

The  biologist  is  familiar  with  the  pheno- 
menon of  fluctuations  of  population  among 
plants  and  animals,  and  is  not  inclined  to  take 
an  alarmist  view  of  either  rise  or  fall  of  the 
birth-rate  in  mankind.  Among  plants  and 
animals  we  see  that  conditions  of  prosperity 
tend  to  allow  the  river  to  overflow  its  banks. 


l6  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

Waves  of  life  are  observed,  such  as  Mr.  W.  H. 
Hudson  has  so  graphically  described  in  his 
Naturalist  in  La  Plata^  but  in  a  comparatively- 
short  time  the  steady  flow  adaptively  regulated 
by  ages  of  natural  selection  is  restored — ^unless 
man  has  brought  about  some  far-reaching 
disturbance. 

The  human  sequence  in  ancient  days  is  more 
or  less  clear.  In  a  limited  area  the  increasing 
population  began  to  overtake  the  means  of 
subsistence;  the  growing  pressure  was  relieved 
by  exposing  the  children,  infanticide,  abortion, 
occasional  emigration,  frequent  wars,  epi- 
demics, famine;  on  the  other  hand,  an  in- 
crease in  material  resources,  e,g,  through 
irrigation,  improved  cultivation,  made  a  grad- 
ual increase  of  population  possible.  Periods 
of  impending  overpopulation  were  followed  by 
critical  periods  in  which  equilibriimi  was  re- 
gained by  expedients,  often -miserable,  but 
sometimes  progressive.  Sometimes,  as  is  well 
known,  the  population-equilibriima  was  sus- 
tained by  differential  rates  of  increase.  There 
were  more  births  than  deaths  in  the  country. 


BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  17 

which  God  made;  and  there  were  more  deaths 
than  births  in  the  towns,  which  man  made; 
and  the  apologists  for  Providence  in  those 
days  used  to  refer  to  this  wonderful  adjustment. 

But  in  the  course  of  the  eighteenth  century 
the  pre-established  harmony  was  dissolved  in 
discord  by  the  colossal  change  of  the  industrial 
era.  It  is  one  of  the  most  stupendous  facts  in 
human  history  that  the  population  of  Europe, 
about  187  millions  in  1800,  was  266  millions 
in  1850,  and  400  millions  in  1900.  In  the  nine- 
teenth century  the  population  of  England  and 
Wales  was  more  than  trebled  (in  1789,  12 
millions;  in  1890,  38  millions).  From  one 
case  we  may  learn  all. 

In  considering  the  extraordinarily  rapid 
increase  in  the  population  associated  with  in- 
dustrialism, much  emphasis  has  been  laid  on 
the  economic  factor — that  big  families  paid 
both  the  workers  and  their  employers.  But 
there  were  at  least  three  other  factors,  (a) 
In  the  early  industrialism  there  were  waves  of 
material  prosperity;  these  tend  to  lift  men  off 
their  feet.     But  a  slackening  of  grip   and 


1 8    THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

restraint  tends  to  raise  the  birth-rate.  The 
most  widespread  prosperity  was  in  the  middle 
of  the  Victorian  period,  when  the  birth-rate 
reached  its  maximum  of  36.3  per  thousand. 

(b)  But,  as  Mr.  Havelock  ElHs  says:  ''The 
magnificence  of  this  epoch  was  built  over 
circles  of  Hell  to  which  the  imagination  of 
Dante  never  attained.^*  And  when  people  lose, 
heart  and  are  reckless,  excessive  birth-rate  may ' 
follow,  just  as  from  the  opposite  causes.  We 
read  in  Exodus  i. :  * '  But  the  more  they  afflicted 
them,  the  more  they  multiplied  and  grew.*' 

(c)  Moreover,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  period 
there  began  to  be  notable  advances  in  preven- 
tive medicine  and  hygiene.  Man  was  entering- 
into  his  kingdom — in  controlling  the  death- 
rate.  One  must  never  forget  the  very  import- 
ant fact  that  since  1865  the  dtiration  of  life 
in  England  and  Wales  has  risen  about  a  third. 

Having  recognized  these  three  factors  we 
are  free  scientifically  to  return  to  the  vast  im- 
portance of  economic  conditions.  We  cannot 
doubt  that  the  tmprecedented  multiplication 
had  in  some  measure  to  do  with  the  fact  that 


BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  19 

children  were  sent  out  in  tender  years — one 
recalls  the  pictures  in  Clayhanger — ^to  the 
factories  and  potteries  and  mines  to  increase 
their  parents*  incomes;  and  that  the  employers 
said  Amen.  Those  who  have  gone  deeply  into 
Natural  History  say  that  foxes  quite  approve 
of  large  families  among  rabbits. 

§  6.     The  Over 'Population  Cry 

Those  who  are  greatly  alarmed  at  the 
present  reduction  of  the  birth-rate  should 
recall  their  own  student  days  when  they  at- 
tended Over-Population  meetings.  The  cry 
was  that  the  world  would  soon  be  '^too  full  of 
people," — the  words  used  in  Greece  two 
thousand  years  before.  At  these  meetings 
much  reference  was  made  to  Malthus,  who 
advised  his  generation  to  avoid  the  terrible 
positive  checks  of  famine,  disease,  infanti- 
cide, and  war  by  practising  prudential  checks 
of  postponing  marriage  and  by  disciplining 
themselves  in  moral  restraint  after  marriage. 
Malthus  did  not  realize  the  possibilities  of 


20  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

increasing  the  food-supply  (Mendelism  alone 
will  serve  for  centimes!),  or  the  possibilities 
of  more  or  less  artificial  birth-control.  Since 
moral  restraint  after  marriage  is  apt  to  defeat 
itself,  the  most  practicable  piece  of  advice 
Malthus  gave  amotmted  to  *' marry  late," 
and  most  biologists  are  agreed  that  this  advice 
was  racially  and  individually  very  bad.  The 
fittest  fathers  are  not  those  who  wait  till  they 
are  past  their  prime;  great  disparity  of  age 
between  the  parents  often  means  unhappiness; 
other  things  equal,  those  children  have  the 
best  chance  whose  youth  is  spent  with  young 
fathers  and  mothers;  and  much  more  might 
be  said  without  supposing  that  the  bridegroom 
has  not  been  equal  to  the  task  of  self-control 
which  the  marrying  late  involves. 

At  such  meetings  we  remember  there  was 
often  some  considerable  misunderstanding  of 
Darwinism,  for  there  were  some  who  said: 
*'  Let  us  not  interfere  with  Nature*s  sifting ;  the 
survival  of  the  fittest,  don't  you  know."  In 
spite  of  Darwin's  express  warning,  it  was 
assimied  that  famine,  disease,  infanticide,  and 


BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  21 

war  may  be  trusted  to  sift  in  a  progressive 
direction.  There  were  also  more  excusable 
misimderstandings  of  Herbert  Spencer's  doc- 
trine, and  the  "old  woman  who  lived  in  a  shoe, 
and  had  so  many  children  that  she  did  not 
know  what  to  do,"  was  told  that  she  should 
really  have  been  more  individuated.  Finally, 
from  James  Mill  to  begin  with,  there  were 
whispers  of  various  means  which  might  be 
employed  after  marriage  to  keep  down  the 
family.  There  was  truth  and  fallacy,  we 
think,  in  all  the  suggestions  backed  by  the 
authority  of  Malthus,  Darwin,  Spencer,  and 
Mill;  we  need  not  go  into  this,  for  everyone 
knows  what  happened.    The  tide  was  turned. 

§  7.     The  Decline  of  the  Birth-rate 

The  tide  turned,  in  1877  in  England,  while 
men  were  arguing  how  to  stem  its  advance. 
The  birth-rate  per  thousand  of  the  population 
was  32  about  1850;  it  rose  a  little  (helped  by 
more  thorough  registration)  to  its  maximum 
36.3  in  1876,  the  year  of  the  Bradlaugh-Besant 


22    THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

trial;  it  has  fallen  to  about  24  per  thousand. 
This  movement  of  decreasing  birth-rate,  in 
which  France  led  the  way,  is  now  common  to 
all  the  more  highly  civilized  nations. 

A  perusal  of  a  good  deal  of  literature  leaves 
in  the  mind  several  impressions,  which  have 
considerable,  if  not  convincing,  backing  of 
facts  behind  them,  (a)  The  decline  is  most 
marked  in  areas  where  the  highest  standard 
of  living  prevails,  and  vice  versa;  thus  Dr.  C. 
Killick  Millard,  in  his  effective  address  on 
''Population  and  Birth  Control**  (19 17),  notes 
that  while  the  birth-rates  of  Hampstead  and 
Shoreditch  were  in  1881  almost  the  same, 
30  and  31  respectively,  *'in  1914,  Hampstead 
birth-rate  had  fallen  to  14.8,  whilst  that  of 
Shoreditch  remained  at  the  old  figure.  The 
same  tendency  exists  in  almost  every  town.** 

(^)  The  decrease  is  much  more  marked  in 
the  upper  and  middle  classes  than  among  the 
poor,  much  more  marked  in  certain  occupa- 
tions and  vocations  than  in  others.  In  a  table 
of  comparative  fertility  for  England,  which 
refers  only  to  women  of  child-bearing  age,  the 


BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  23 

four  occupations  at  the  top  end  are  coal- 
miners  (126.4),  agricultural  labourers  (113.4), 
boiler-makers  (iio.i),  farmers  (100.5),  the 
ntmibers  indicating  proportions  to  a  general 
population-fertility  taken  as  100.  The  four 
at  the  lower  end  of  the  list  are  Nonconformist 
ministers  (79.8),  Church  of  England  clergy- 
men (72),  teachers  (70.3),  and  doctors  (64.7). 
Generalizations  contrasting  skilled  and  un- 
skilled workmen  are  extremely  hazardous. 

(c)  The  smaller  the  mmiber  of  rooms  the 
larger  the  family  tends  to  be,  and  the  death- 
rate  among  infants  tends  to  be  highest  where 
the  birth-rate  is  highest.  Making  some  note- 
worthy exceptions,  e.g.  for  coal-miners  who 
seem,  on  the  whole,  to  be  men  of  good  physique, 
Dr.  Millard  writes:  ''It  appears  undeniable 
that  poverty,  degradation,  inefficiency,  ignor- 
ance, overcrowding,  almost  everything,  in 
fact,  that  in  human  judgment  tends  to  dis- 
qualify for  parenthood,  are  just  the  factors 
nowadays  which  too  often  co-exist  with  large 
families."  The  biologist  is  inclined,  however, 
to  plead  for  discrimination  between  the  con- 


24  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

stitutionally  disqualified  and  those  whose  dis- 
qualifications are  superficial, — ^modificational 
in  fact,  and  therefore  not,  so  far  as  we  know, 
"transmissible." 

§  8.    Probable  Causes  of  the  Reduction  of 
the  Birth-rate 

The  causes  of  the  fall  of  the  birth-rate  are 
being  investigated,  and  we  cannot  do  more 
than  indicate  probabilities.  The  answer  is 
likely  to  be  multiple,  for  the  birth-rate  depends 
on  many  factors,  and  these  are  variable.  It 
depends  on  the  age-composition  of  the  com- 
mimity,  on  the  number  of  wives  under  forty- 
five,  on  the  age  at  marriage,  on  the  duration 
of  marriage,  on  the  loyalty  of  husband  and 
wife,  on  the  amoimt  of  illegitimacy,  on  the 
economic  conditions  which  affect  control  either 
through  continence  or  through  some  evasion 
of  parentage,  and  on  some  other  factors  like 
alcoholism  and  reproductive  diseases.  Nutri- 
tive factors  do  not  seem  to  be  directly  import- 
ant; the  degree  of  mental  development  does 


BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  25 

nor  seem  to  have  much,  if  any,  direct  effect; 
differential  decHne  in  fertiHty  with  increase 
of  individuation  is  improved.  The  impression 
among  careful  students  is  widespread,  that 
the  reduction  of  the  birth-rate  is  mainly  due 
to  intentional  restriction  of  births,  to  deliber- 
ate birth-control.  The  Registrar-General  for 
England  has  made  the  important  statement 
that  not  more  than  about  17  per  cent,  of  the 
decline  in  the  birth-rate  can  be  accounted  for 
as  the  result  of  abstinence  from  marriage  or 
of  postponement  of  marriage,  but  that  nearly 
70  per  cent,  .of  the  decline  must  be  ascribed 
to  volimtary  restriction. 

§  9.     Evil  and  Good  in  the  Decline  of 
the  Birth-rate 

Many  thoughtful  students  have  the  fore- 
boding that  the  decline  of  the  birth-rate  will 
endanger  the  stability  of  the  British  Empire, 
(i)  But  much  depends  on  how  far  the  decline 
goes.  If  there  should  begin  to  be  an  excess  of 
deaths  over  births,  that  would  be  ominous 


26  THE  CONTROL  OP  PARENTHOOD 

indeed,  but  a  considerable  decline  in  the  birth- 
rate may  strengthen  a  nation  by  raising  the 
health-rate  and  lessening  the  strain  of  domestic 
anxieties.  (2)  The  decline  in  the  birth-rate  is 
now  almost  a  general  phenomenon  in  civilized 
coimtries,  though  the  amounts  differ  con- 
siderably. If  it  extends  as  it  is  doing  it  will 
not  greatly  alter  the  nimierical  proportions  of 
nationalities.  (3)  One  of  the  conditions  that 
makes  a  nation  a  menace  to  others  is  a  high 
birth-rate  accompanied  by  a  low  death-rate. 
(4)  Just  as  birth-control  in  a  family  is  relative 
to  many  conditions,  such  as  the  health  of  the 
mother,  the  vigour  of  the  children,  and  the 
prospects  of  auspicious  laimching  in  life — 
conditions  which  may  change  as  years  pass — so 
the  problem  for  nations  is  relative  to  condi- 
tions. When  the  land  is  crowded,  when  open- 
ings are  few,  when  imemployment  is  rife,  and 
distress  is  at  the  doors,  restriction  of  the  size 
of  families  might  increase  national  stability; 
but  when  nimibers  are  dwindling  or  have  been 
reduced  out  of  proportion  to  their  replacement, 
when  new  opportimities  of  industry  are  offered, 


BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  27 

when  new  countries  are  opening  out,  when  new 
discoveries  greatly  increase  material  resources, 
when  there  is  vigour  and  mastery,  then  it 
might  be  wise  to  harken  to  the  old  counsel — 
''Be  fruitful  and  multiply/'  Neither  for  the 
family  nor  for  the  nation  have  we  to  do  with 
mutually  exclusive  alternatives. 

But  a  second  reason  for  foreboding  is  foimd 
in  the  fact  that  the  decline  in  the  birth-rate  is 
differential,  affecting  certain  sections  of  the 
community  more  than  others.  The  less  desir- 
able, it  is  said — ^the  thriftless,  the  careless,  the 
unreliable — tend  to  be  the  most  prolific; 
the  more  desirable — the  thrifty,  the  educated, 
the  controlled,  those  who  care — tend  to  be  the 
least  prolific.  If  this  is  quite  certain,  does  it 
not  point  to  inevitable  deterioration?  (i) 
But  there  is,  in  spite  of  all  hygiene,  a  high 
death-rate  among  the  thriftless.  (2)  It  is 
absurd  to  talk  as  if  the  desirables  and  the  im- 
desirables  could  be  distinguished  at  a  glance. 
Many  people  who  have  lost  grip  and  heart 
were  made,  not  bom,  undesirable.  It  takes  a 
lot  of  different  kinds  of  men  and  women  to 


28  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

make  a  world  and  keep  it  going.  The  produc- 
tion of  the  fit  and  of  the  remarkably  able  (take 
Faraday,  for  instance)  is  not  a  monopoly  of 
any  class.  (3)  It  has  also  to  be  remembered 
that  all  measures  implying  increased  control 
of  life  work  from  the  more  thoughtful  to  the 
less  thoughtful,  and  spread  gradually. 

Thirdly,  many  wise  men  in  recent  years  have 
said  that  they  are  less  afraid  of  the  decline  of 
the  birth-rate  than  of  the  methods  of  artificial 
restriction,  by  which  it  is  said  to  be  in  greater 
part  effected.  It  is  plain,  however,  that  mod- 
em preventives  or  contraceptives,  which  keep 
new  lives  from  beginning,  are  less  to  be  de- 
precated than  abortion  and  infanticide.  As 
to  dangers  to  health  that  may  be  involved,  it 
appears  that  these  are  in  a  process  of  being 
reduced,  and  against  them  must  be  set  the 
deterioration  of  health  involved  in  too  frequent 
maternity.  Perhaps  the  greatest  danger  is 
that  the  evasion  of  the  responsibility  of  off- 
spring may  promote  sexual  intemperance. 

Fourthly,  some  thoughtful  critics  have  said 
that  what  fills  them  with  foreboding  is  not  the 


BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  29 

fact  of  the  reduction  of  the  birth-rate,  nor  its 
unequal  incidence,  nor  the  method  of  birth- 
control  employed,  but  the  motives  behind, 
since  these  are  apt  to  be  selfish.  It  is  difficult, 
however,  to  discover  motives,  and  many  mo- 
tives are  mixed.  One  is  tempted  to  think  that 
there  is  a  good  deal  of  selfishness  behind  the 
empty  cradle  and  the  celibate  club,  but  it  is 
very  difficult  to  make  verifiable  statements. 
What  we  have  often  to  do  with  is  not  an  empty 
cradle,  but  keeping  the  cradle  from  having  a 
rapid  or  long  succession  of  tenants.  What  we 
have  often  to  do  with  is  birth-control,  because 
of  the  risk  of  not  being  able  to  do  well  by  the 
children,  and  because  of  the  burdensomeness 
of  too  frequent  maternity — ^neither  of  them 
deplorable  motives. 

It  seems  to  us  that  the  good  side  of  the 
reduction  of  the  birth-rate  deserves  more  con- 
sideration than  it  usually  receives.  It  may 
tend  to  improve  the  health  both  of  children 
and  mothers;  it  may  tend  to  substitute  quality 
for  quantity;  it  may  make  life  less  anxious, 
more  sectire,  and  with  greater  possibilities  of 


30  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

fineness.  Associated  with  birth-control,  it 
makes  earlier  marriage  more  practicable;  it 
facilitates  non-parental  marriages;  it  makes 
for  the  independence  of  women  and  increases 
their  opportunities  of  self -development.  It 
will  probably  work  against  war,  of  which 
nations  with  a  low  birth-rate  tend  to  be  most 
intolerant.  Personally,  we  share  the  view  of 
Mr.  Havelock  Ellis  that  birth-control  within 
limits  makes  for  progress  and  is  likely  to  con- 
tinue to  do  so,  being  not  "race  suicide"  but 
race-saving. 

Envoi 

We  must  not,  however,  look  at  things  too 
biologically;  and  if  we  are  forced  to  methods 
that  by  their  very  nature  are  not  more  than 
physiological  we  must  cotmteract  these  by  a 
heightened  idealism.  We  are  mind-and-body 
creatures,  and  the  greatest  thing  in  human  life 
is  love.  If  we  jettison  this,  we  are  sacrificing 
one  of  the  treasures  that  makes  our  voyage 
worth  while.    If  the  mode  of  life  and  thought 


BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  31 

we  are  inclined  to  acqiiiesce  in  tends  towards 
a  mere  natural  history  view  of  marriage  and 
children,  we  must  correct  it.  While  we  must 
not  allow  the  word  "artificial"  to  be  a  bogy, 
we  know  that  the  substitution  of  mechanical 
control  for  moral  control  can  never  be  regarded 
with  entire  equanimity.  We  must,  to  save 
ourselves,  cultivate  counteractives  to  mechani- 
zation, for  if  we  lose  the  chivalry  and  tender- 
ness of  lovers,  the  joyousness  of  the  springtime 
of  the  heart,  the  adventurousness  of  early 
marriage  or  meagre  material  resources,  and 
the  delight  of  having  children  while  we  are 
yoimg  enough  to  sympathize  with  them,  we 
are  missing  some  of  the  fragrant  flowers  of  life. 


.  y 


II 

By  Professor  Leonard  Hill,  M.D.,  F.R.S. 

Throughout  the  material  world  infinitely 
great,  stars,  planets,  and  infinitely  little,  mole- 
cules and  atoms,  no  less  than  throughout  the 
living  world  there  takes  place  an  endless  cycle 
of  growth,  birth,  decay. 

In  the  living  world  the  whole  structure  of 
the  organism,  plant,  or  animal,  is  designed  for 
two  purposes :  first,  the  securing  of  food  and  so 
growing  to  sexual  maturity ;  secondly  breeding. 

Living  matter  exists  in  the  cellular  form, 
either  as  unicelliilar  organisms  of  microscopic 
size,  or  as  congeries  of  multitudes  of  cells 
grouped  into  organs  which  subserve  different 
fimctions.  The  different  forms  of  cellular  life 
grow  assimilating  food  substance  and  absorb- 
ing energy  from  the  environment  until  the 
balance  of  energy  within  the  living  substance 

32 


BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  33 

impels  the  cell  to  bud  off  a  part  or  divide,  each 
bud  or  division  then  repeating  the  process. 

Nothing  but  living  matter  can  organize  the 
materials  and  forms  of  energy  of  the  non-living 
into  the  living  world.  Each  living  cell  (of 
microscopical  size)  possesses  a  type  of  energy 
which  is  so  atttmed  to  the  environment  that 
it  retains  certain  attributes  of  structure  and 
function  and  transmits  these  to  its  offspring — 
heredity  characteristics.  The  environment 
however  influences  the  growth  and  develop- 
ment, so  that  no  two  individuals  are  alike.  The 
variations  which  arise  may  favour  existence  and 
propagation  of  the  variants,  help  them  in  the 
struggle  for  existence,  or  be  against  them. 

When  a  unicellular  organism  is  placed  in  a 
drop  of  water  it  may  divide  into  two,  and  the 
two  may  become  a  multitude,  but  finally  the 
stock  becomes  exhausted  and  dies  off.  If, 
however,  some  of  this  stock  be  mixed  with 
some  of  another  stock  of  the  same  species, 
individuals  of  the  two  stocks  may  fuse  and 
become  one,  and  when  this  happens  the  vigour 
of  Hfe  and  power  of  multiplication  is  restored. 


34  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

A  refreshment  and  strengthening  of  the  race  is 
brought  about  by  such  occasional  conjugation. 

Cells  divide  after  a  series  of  striking  changes 
have  taken  place  in  the  nucleus  and  cell  proto- 
plasm which  the  microscope  reveals. 

The  living  substance  of  the  unicellular  animal 
living  in  water  carries  out  all  the  functions  of 
taking  in  food  and  oxygen  and  excreting  waste, 
moving,  feeling,  and  propagating  by  division. 

In  the  higher  animals  myriads  of  cells  con- 
gregate together  and  live  a  co-operative  life, 
each  inevitably  subserving  certain  appointed 
ends  fixed  by  its  environment,  each  kept  in 
place  by  struggle  with  its  fellows,  just  as  men 
in  a  city.  A  circulation  of  blood  conveys 
nutriment  and  oxygen  to  all  the  cells;  these 
are  the  digestive  organs,  the  metabolic  and  ex- 
cretory glands,  the  breathing  organs,  the  nerv- 
ous system,  and  the  sexual  organs  which  are  set 
aside  with  the  special  function  of  propagation. 

In  the  higher  organisms  conjugation  is  im- 
perative, and  male  and  female  have  been 
evolved  to  secure  it,  the  male  producing  the 
spermatozoon,  which  actively  seeks  and  fer- 


BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  35 

tilizes  the  female  element,  the  egg  or  ovum, 
which  passively  receives  the  spermatozoon 
and,  having  conjugated  with  it,  divides  into 
cells  which  multiply  and  develop  all  the  organs 
and  bodily  structure  of  the  species,  both  the 
male  and  female  influencing  the  offspring  in 
hereditary  characteristics.  In  plants  the 
male  element  is  the  pollen  and  the  female  the 
ovule,  and  here  again  the  pollen  actively 
fertilizes  the  ovtile. 

The  ovimi  is  a  minute  mass  or  cell  of  fluid 
substance  called  protoplasm,  and  comparable 
to  the  raw  white  of  an  egg.  The  ultra-micro- 
scope shows  the  fluid  to  be  crowded  with 
granules  of  various  sizes  and  nature  in  active 
vibration.  The  ovimi,  like  other  cells,  con- 
tains a  nucleus  different  in  structure  and 
chemical  nature,  and  essential  to  the  life  and 
dividing  power  of  the  cell.  The  spermatozoon 
has  a  head  containing  nuclear  material  and  a 
long  vibratile  filament,  by  means  of  which  it 
can  actively  move  through  a  watery  liquid  of 
suitable  composition. 

The  sexual  apparatus  in  the  male  consists 


36  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

of  the  testes,  in  which  the  spermatozoa  are 
produced,  certain  glands,  the  prostate,  etc., 
which  aid  in  the  formation  of  the  seminal  fluid, 
and  the  intromittent  organ,  by  means  of  which 
the  semen  is  introduced  into  the  female  during 
the  act  of  sexual  intercourse. 

In  the  female,  the  apparatus  consists  of  the 
egg-bearing  organ  or  ovary,  the  womb,  or 
uterus,  in  which  the  child  is  nourished  during 
the  first  nine  months  of  growth,  the  oviducts 
or  Fallopian  tubes  which  conduct  the  egg  to 
the  uterus  from  the  ovary,  and  the  vulva  and 
vagina  into  which  the  penis  is  introduced 
during  sexual  intercourse,  and  through  which 
the  child  passes  from  the  uterus  on  birth.  The 
female  generative  organs  imdergo  on  and  after 
adolescence  a  series  of  periodic  changes  at 
monthly  intervals — the  process  of  menstrua- 
tion, which  ceases  about  the  age  of  fifty  when 
the  woman  loses  the  power  of  conception. 
Menstruation  also  ceases  during  pregnancy 
and  usually  while  the  woman  is  suckling  a 
child. 

Ova  ripen  before  each  period  and  pass  down 


BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  37 

the  Fallopian  tube  to  the  womb,  there  to  be 
fertilized  by  the  spermatozoon  mayhap,  or  \m- 
fertilized  to  perish.  The  womb  refreshes  itself 
at  each  period  by  a  cycle  of  changes  similar  to 
those  which  occur  in  domestic  animals  at  the 
time  of  *'heat,  '*  a  time  when  sexual  attraction 
of  the  female  to  the  opposite  sex  is  increased 
by  flushing  of  the  vulva  and  by  smell  and  an 
impulsion  thus  given  to  fertilize,  which  is  in 
abeyance  between  the  ''heats.'*  Before  her 
period,  a  girl  becomes  most  attractive  and 
blooming,  during  it  the  contrary,  and  sexual 
intercourse  is  then  forbidden  by  Mosaic  law; 
during  menstruation  a  woman  may  become 
more  irritable,  difficult,  crotchety,  less  efficient 
as  a  worker;  some  women  suffer  pain  and  dis- 
turbance of  health.  In  some  the  signs  are 
slight  and  unnoticeable.  The  womb  casts  off 
the  outer  portion  of  its  lining  and  renews  this, 
a  preparation  probably  for  the  implantation  of 
an  ovtrni  and  development  of  the  structure 
which  nourishes  such  if  fertilized. 

If  the  ovum  is  fertilized,  profound  changes 
take  place  both  in  the  temperament  and  bodily 


38  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

conditions  of  the  mother,  and  while  the  womb 
develops  the  organ  which  nourishes  the  foetus, 
the  development  of  further  ova  and  menstrua- 
tion are  kept  in  abeyance. 

These  changes  are  connected  with  the 
growth  of  a  structure  in  the  ovary,  which 
develops  out  of  the  cells  surroimding  the  place 
from  which  the  ovum  escaped. 

The  breasts  develop,  and  the  whole  nutrition 
of  the  body  of  the  mother  alters  to  meet  the 
demands  of  the  child. 

In  the  case  of  the  spinster  who  cannot  con- 
ceive, or  a  wife  who  prevents  herself  conceiving, 
each  menstrual  period  ends,  so  to  speak,  in 
a  disappointment  of  all  these  organs  which 
tindergo  change  on  fertilization.  In  conse- 
quence of  the  non-fulfilment  of  desire  and  the 
physiological  functions  of  the  sexual  organs, 
the  sexual  processes  become  deranged  in  many, 
and  painful  menstruation  occurs,  the  breasts 
atrophy,  the  beauty  is  lost.  In  the  case  of  the 
unmarried,  the  rose,  blushing  imcared  for,  fades 
away.  The  temperament  either  sours,  or 
becomes  ttimed  to  works  of  mercy  and  de- 


BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  39 

votion  other  than  motherhood — some  becom- 
ing nuns,  others  hospital  nurses.  Other 
women  become  factory  hands,  approximating 
to  the  sterile  workers  of  the  bee  commtmity. 
Some  few  become  sexual  perverts  and  feminists 
and  like  the  worker  bees  come  to  hate  the 
drones. 

The  suppression  of  natural  sexual  impulses 
is  the  great  cause  of  nervous  disturbance  of 
health  called  hysteria.  In  the  war  the  sup- 
pression of  the  natural  instinct  for  self-pre- 
servation was  the  chief  cause  of  nervous 
debility;  in  peace  the  suppression  of  sexual 
desire  is  a  chief  cause. 

Non-satisfaction  of  the  natural  sexual  in- 
stinct leads  many  to  abnormal  sexual  practices, 
self-abuse  practised  by  both  sexes,  harmful 
in  so  far  as  it  affects  the  nervous  temperament 
and  afflicts  the  indulgent  with  feelings  of 
imworthiness,  etc. 

Domestic  animals  of  one  sex  confined  to- 
gether no  less  are  impelled  to  attempts  at 
sexual  perversion  and  abuse. 

Medical  experience  shows  that  the  most/ 


y 


40  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 


virile  men  have  strong  sexual  instincts  and 
satisfy  these — ^for  example,  the  best  fighting 
air-pilots. 

«  It  is  untrue  to  teach  that  abstinence  from ' 
'  sexual  life  does  no  harm.  Such  doctrine  is ' 
'  taught  by  old  men,  worn  out,  who  have  for- 1 
gotten  their  youth  and  the  spring  of  the  yotmg  * 
blood,  or  repent  of  excess,  or  by  those  who  are  \ 
bom  with  a  small  development  of  the  sexual  \ 
organs  and  little  desire. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  sexual 
glands  modify  the  growth  and  development 
of  the  whole  body  and  character;  the  boy  at 
adolescence  acquires  a  bass  voice,  from  growth 
of  the  larynx,  muscular  development,  growth 
of  hair,  alteration  of  character;  the  emascu- 
lated, or  spayed,  animal  is  sleek,  lazy,  peaceful, 
and  puts  on  fat. 

The  male  animal  is  developed  not  only 
attractive,  but  of  an  active,  fighting  natiu-e,  so 
that  the  best  stock  should  win  the  female  and 
propagate  the  race;  the  female  is  developed 
attractive  to  the  male  and  with  organs  for 
nourishing  the  growth  of  the  embryo. 


BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  41 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  fertilization  of 
the  ovum  can  be  imitated  by  artificial  means, 
e.g.  by  modifying  the  physical  and  chemical 
conditions  of  the  ovum.  Sea-urchin  eggs  can 
be  caused  to  develop  by  adding  traces  of 
certain  salts  to  the  sea-water  in  which  they 
float;  a  frog's  egg  by  puncturing  it  with  a  glass 
needle.  Thus  a  live  frog  has  been  raised  from 
an  ovum  imfertilized  by  the  male  element. 
A  feminist  author  knowing  these  facts  and 
hating  man  has  gone  so  far  as  to  write  a  book 
in  which  she  looks  forward  to  women  in  the 
future  conceiving  without  the  aid  of  man — an 
immaculate  conception ! 

The  acme  of  life  is  reached  when  breeding 
takes  place,  and  many  insects  after  fertiliza- 
tion and  egg-laying  die.  The  dragon-fly,  after 
many  months  spent  as  a  grub,  mates  in  a  few 
hours  of  glorious  flight,  then  dies. 

The  drive  of  the  sexual  instinct  may  lead  to 
death  in  the  very  act  of  fertilization,  e.g.  the 
drone  whose  sexual  organs  are  torn  from  him 
when  he  mates  with  the  queen  bee  at  the  zenith 
of  the  nuptial  flight  into  the  azure  of  the  sky, 


42  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

and  dies  as  the  reward  of  winning  the  race. 
In  the  autumn  drones  are  driven  from  the  hive 
to  die  by  the  sterile  female  workers.  The  bees 
have  developed  an  amazing  commimity — one 
fertile  queen  which  lays  thousands  of  eggs  for 
two  or  three  years,  a  few  males  or  drones,  and 
hosts  of  sterile  workers.  The  queen  bee  keeps 
within  her  the  store  of  living  spermatozoa  re- 
ceived by  her  in  the  one  nuptial  flight,  and  uses 
this  only  to  fertilize  eggs  which  are  to  become 
workers,  or  queens.  The  queens  are  developed 
at  the  will  of  the  workers  from  a  worker  egg  by 
a  large  supply  of  bee  milk,  a  food  of  precious 
virtue. 

There  is  a  species  of  spider  wherein  the  male 
is  so  small  that  he  has  to  warily  approach  the 
gross-bellied  female  or  he  is  caught  and  eaten 
for  his  awkward  gallantry. 

The  higher  animals  have  not  only  to  pro- 
duce their  young,  but  nourish  them  through 
long  periods,  so  as  to  start  them  successfully  on 
the  war  of  life,  both  male  and  female  sharing  in 
this,  and  thus  they  live  long  and  develop  cim- 
ning  in  securing  food  and  shelter  and  warding 


BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  43 

off  the  ultimate  fate  of  all — death,  death  which 
is  probably  brought  about  by  the  accumulation 
in  the  body  of  waste  products  which  hamper 
and  finally  choke  the  living  cells,  rendering 
them  defenceless  against  the  invasion  of 
microbes. 

Man  has  carried  the  care  of  the  young  to 
the  greatest  extent,  having  to  face  not  only 
dangers  natural  to  all  life,  but  the  struggle 
with  his  fellow-men,  and  has  evolved  co- 
operation— ^the  social  instinct — to  balance  the 
struggle  between  individuals.  With  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  ctinning  of  his  hands  and  brain  man 
has  built  up  all  the  defences  of  civilization; 
handing  down  traditional  experience  not  only 
by  speech  but  by  writing,  finally  arriving  at 
the  science  and  art  of  modem  civilized  life; 
elaborating  not  only  all  means  of  receiving 
food,  shelter,  warmth,  through  co-operative 
work,  but  means  of  amusing  and  interesting 
himself  in  leisure  hours;  the  communal  interest 
finally  culminating  in  the  establishment  of 
monogamy  and  the  family  life,  and  the  teach- 
ing of  love  and  self-sacrifice,  and  the  doctrine, 


44  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

"Whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  to 
you,  do  ye  even  so  to  them." 

So  lavish  is  the  propagation  of  life  that  any 
organism  imchecked  would  soon  fill  the  earth. 
It  has  been  estimated  that  a  single  unicellular 
organism  by  successive  division  in  five  years, 
if  none  of  the  progeny  were  destroyed  and  food 
for  growth  were  available,  would  form  a 
,  volume  of  living  substance  ten  thousand  times 
the  volimie  of  the  earth ! 

While  the  propagation  of  the  young  is 
carried  out  by  nature  in  most  prodigal  scale, 
the  struggle  for  existence  keeps  all  within 
boimds.  Tens  of  thousands  of  eggs  are  laid 
and  hatched,  and  all  except  the  very  few  fall 
a  prey  to  others,  or  to  untoward  conditions  of 
the  environment.  Thousands  and  thousands 
of  tadpoles  reach  the  young  frog  stage  and 
march  from  the  pond,  where  some  dozens  of 
frogs  have  laid  their  spawn,  over  the  grassy 
bank;  but  how  few  ever  reach  maturity,  and 
how  many  tadpoles  have  already  met  their 
fate  before  ever  reaching  the  frog  stage?  Na- 
ture cares  nothing  for  the  death  of  myriads, 


BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  45 

as  she  evolves  in  ceaseless  kaleidoscopic 
change. 

The  infant  death-rate  of  man,  in  conditions 
where  ignorance  is  rife  and  the  environment 
bad,  reaches  250  per  thousand.  In  big  cities 
it  may  be  170,  in  the  best  educated  classes  liv- 
ing in  a  garden  city  30. 

Man,  having  learnt  to  secure  food  by  barter 
and  transport  and  to  guard  his  offspring  through 
knowledge,  has  occupied  in  millions  certain 
parts  of  the  earth.  Conditions  in  these  places 
of  dense  population  have  become  so  difficult, 
from  mere  density  and  crowding,  that  man 
now  seeks  to  secure  the  joys  of  the  act  of  fer- 
tilization and  attain  to  the  comforts  of  married 
life,  and,  at  the  same  time,  to  escape  the 
trouble  and  worry  of  raising  offspring. 

Infanticide  has  been  practised  by  man, 
and  still  is  by  the  Terra  del  Fuegians,  who 
have  to  keep  their  birth-rate  down  to  their 
food  supply. 

The  Lacedaemonians  chose  the  best,  and 
exposed  the  less  worthy  infants  in  a  valley, 
according  to  the  directions  of  the  State  au- 


46  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

thority,  which  superseded  the  natiiral  rights 
of  the  parents. 

An  African  tribe  has  selected  the  finest 
young  men  as  stalHons  and  educated  them  to 
breed  and  exalt  the  stock,  mutilating  the 
others  so  that  copulation  took  place  without 
fertilization,  the  seed  escaping  outside. 

The  crowded  city  life  in  itself  reduces 
fertility  and  lowers  the  birth-rate  apart  from 
the  use  of  artificial  means. 

Those  who  spend  much  time  actively 
engaged  out  of  doors  and  eat  natural  foods,  not 
the  products  of  the  miller  and  canner,  are  the 
ones  who  remain  most  virile  and  breed  the  best 
stock.  Those  who  suffer  most  from  nervous 
affections,  depression  of  spirits,  and  unhappi- 
ness,  are  the  sedentary  people  who  spend  their 
time  in  stagnant  atmospheres  indoors,  at- 
mospheres which,  as  the  writer  has  shown, 
have  lower  cooling  and  drying  powers  than 
those  out  of  doors  in  himiid  tropical  climates, 
where  women  are  known  to  suffer  health  and 
lose  fertility. 

Of  enormous  importance  to  health  of  mother 


BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  47 

and  child  are  the  vitamine  content  of  the  food, 
and  the  incentive  to  appetite  of  open-air 
exercise. 

SteriHty  is  common  among  milch  cows 
wherever  large  numbers  are  brought  together 
and  intensively  fed  for  breeding  and  heavy 
milk  production.  The  higher  the  dairy  de- 
velopment of  the  cow  and  the  greater  the 
restraints  of  an  imnatural  environment  the 
more  the  failure  to  breed.  Lack  of  balance  in 
the  ration,  gross  overfeeding,  food  shortage, 
increases  sterility  and  abortion.  Of  twenty- 
four  yotmg  men  fed  on  a  low  war  ration, 
twenty-two  acknowledged  they  had  lost  sexual 
desire.    They  dreamt  of  food,  not  of  love. 

What  an  effect  tenement  dwellings  and  in- 
dustrialism as  hitherto  carried  out  has  on  the 
race  is  shown  by  the  figures  following : 

The  Chief  Medical  Officer  of  the  Board  of 
Education  reports  that  not  less  than  a  million 
children  of  school  age  are  so  physically  or 
mentally  defective  as  to  be  tinable  to  derive 
reasonable  benefit  from  the  education  the 
State  provides.     In  Finsbury,  he  says,  the 


48  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

death-rate  of  infants  varied  from  41  to  375  in 
the  sub-areas,  the  death-rate  being  highest 
where  there  was  the  highest  percentage  of 
poor  class  tenements  and  low  standard  of 
social  life. 

Dr.  John  Brownlee  finds  there  is  sixteen 
years*  difference  between  the  expectation  of  life 
at  birth  in  a  big  city  and  the  healthiest  dis- 
tricts. At  the  age  of  five  the  difference  is 
eleven  and  a  half  years.  Twenty-one  per  cent, 
of  children  in  county  boroughs  of  the  north 
die  before  the  fifth  year,  and  9  per  cent,  in 
rural  districts  of  the  south. 

At  least  a  million  recruits,  said  the  Prime 
Minister,  were  found  imfit  for  military  service. 
Between  the  ages  of  forty  and  fifty  the  death- 
rate  in  the  unhealthiest  districts  is  two  to  three 
times  greater  than  in  the  healthiest. 

While  the  death-rate  has  been  lowered 
generally,  the  relation  between  density  of 
population  and  high  mortality  established 
many  years  ago  by  Dr.  Farr  has  not  been 
altered  by  improved  sanitation,  by  good  drain- 
age, pure  water  supply,  etc. 


BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  49 

The  high  mortaUty  of  children  is  due  to 
excess  of  respiratory  and  alimentary  diseases, 
particularly  the  latter. 

While  proper  feeding  is  of  paramount  im- 
portance, two  factors  must  be  considered: 
(i)  the  right  choice  of  food;  (2)  the  need  for 
food  set  up  by  the  expenditure  of  bodily  energy. 

The  cooling  and  evaporating  powers  of  the 
air  are  closely  connected  with  the  causes  of 
high  infant  mortality,  these  acting  both  on  the 
skin  and  respiratory  membrane.  Cool  morn- 
ing air  is  the  natural  stimulus  to  activity  and 
appetite,  to  deep  breathing,  active  circulation, 
thorough  oxygenation,  and  good  digestion. 
Cool  air  when  breathed  promotes  evaporation 
from,  and  flow  of  blood  and  l5nnph  through, 
the  respiratory  membrane,  the  natural  de- 
fences against  infection. 

I  estimate  a  man  camping  out  of  doors  in 
cool  weather,  and  taking  several  hours'  hard 
exercise,  may  have  almost  a  ten  times  greater 
flow  of  blood  and  secretion  through  his  respi- 
ratory membrane  than  one  living  in  a  warm 
humid  tenement.    In  the  latter  the  infection 


50  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

from  dust  and  saliva  spray  from  ''carriers'*  of 
disease  is  very  great;  in  the  former  nil. 

Physiological  research  has  proved  conclu- 
sively that,  apart  from  the  spread  of  infection 
by  ''carriers,  '*  it  is  not  the  chemical  impurity, 
but  the  physical  conditions  of  close  air  which 
make  for  discomfort  and  impoverish  health. 
It  is  not  excess  of  carbonic  acid,  nor  lack  of 
oxygen,  nor  the  presence  of  organic  impurities 
which  affect  us  in  a  crowded  room,  but  the 
heat  and  moisture  of  the  air.  The  victims  of 
the  Black  Hole  of  Calcutta  died  not  of  suffoca- 
tion, but  of  heat  stroke. 

I  have  introduced  an  instniment,  the  kata- 
thermometer,  by  means  of  which  there  can  be 
measured  the  cooling  and  evaporative  powers 
of  the  air  exerted  on  a  surface  at  body  tem- 
per atiu'e. 

Exposure  to  wind  has  a  most  potent  in- 
fluence on  the  cooling  and  evaporative  powers, 
an  influence  which  the  thermometer  fails  to 
indicate. 

The  open-air  workers  and  agriculturists, 
fishermen,  etc.,  are  then  exposed  to  a  greater 


BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  51 

cooling  and  evaporative  power  than  citizens 
who  dwell  in  tenements,  travel  in  crowded 
conveyances,  work  in  schoolrooms  or  factories, 
eat  in  canteens,  seek  amusement  in  cinemas. 
It  is  the  lack  of  windage  which  largely  explains 
the  correlation  between  density  of  population 
and  high  mortality  and  morbidity. 

The  tenement  baby  overclothed  and  con- 
fined indoors  by  the  mother  for  fear  of  its 
catching  cold,  and  to  save  trouble  under  diffi- 
ctilties  of  tenement  life,  dies  from  digestive, 
nutritive,  and  respiratory  troubles  brought  on 
by  infection  in  stagnant,  warm,  himiid  atmos- 
pheres, and  by  bad  feeding.  Nothing  is  done 
to  secure  the  natural  massage  of  its  belly 
organs  by  outdoor  exercise  and  the  deeper 
breathing  excited  thereby;  to  maintain  the 
circulation  of  the  blood  by  the  action  of  the 
muscles  during  such  exercise  and  by  the  hard 
tone  of  the  body  which  results  from  such  exer- 
cise; to  stimulate  combustion  and  a  full  utiliza- 
tion of  the  food,  and  so  secure  a  clean  bowel, 
free  from  excessive  bacterial  fermentation  and 
toxic  products  of  the  same,  and  a  keen  appetite 


52  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

which  will  ensure  the  securing  of  enough  of  the 
rarer  building  stones  required  in  the  food  for 
growth  and  health. 

The  want  of  vitamines,  which  exist  in  fresh 
natural  foods,  milk  and  butter  from  grass-fed 
cows,  succulent  fresh  young  garden  produce, 
results  from  the  present  city  conditions,  and 
causes  "deficiency"  diseases,  such  as  scurvy, 
rickets,  with  the  decay  of  teeth,  with  an  enor- 
mous amoimt  of  ill-health  which  is  not  actually 
identified  as  disease. 

In  Glasgow,  some  50  per  cent,  of  the  children 
of  the  poor  suffer  from  rickets,  and  50  per  cent, 
of  the  population  live  in  tenements.  In  garden 
cities  there  is  very  little  rickets.  Eighty  to 
ninety  per  cent,  of  the  school  children  in  Lon- 
don suffer  from  decay  of  the  teeth.  Over-feed- 
ing of  the  tenement  babies  with  dirty  cows' 
milk  brings  about  fatal  diarrhoea.  Mothers' 
milk  is  defective  because  the  mothers  feed  on  a 
vitamine  deficient  diet.  The  older  children  re- 
ceive, in  place  of  fresh  natural  foods,  separated 
products  of  the  miller  and  refiner — ^white  flour, 
sugar,  vegetable  oil,  margarine,  and  canned 


BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  53 

foods  —  from  which  vitamines  are  removed. 

It  is  open  air  and  exercise,  good  feeding, 
and  well-regulated  rest  which  convert  weedy- 
citizens  into  robust  soldiers,  which  restore 
weakly  children  in  open-air  schools,  and  con- 
sumptives in  sanatoria.  Preventable  sickness 
maims  and  kills  as  many,  and  causes  as  much 
economic  loss  as  the  late  war.  Garden  cities 
then  should  be  built.  New  sites  should  be 
chosen  with  beautiful  surroimdings,  and  with 
all  the  conditions  that  favour  a  happy  and 
healthy  life.  The  young  should  be  educated 
in  the  discipline  of  taking  pride  in  and  keeping 
perfect  bodily  health,  all  receiving  the  educa- 
tion in  strength  and  character  that  public 
school  boys  obtain  on  the  playing  fields. 

The  impulse  to  restrict  conception  should 
be  strongest  in  the  crowded  tenements,  and  no 
doubt  is  among  many  harassed  poor  women 
who  have  to  submit  to  the  desire  of  their  hus- 
bands. Not  only  forethought  is  wanting,  but 
knowledge  of  the  means,  and  money  to  afford 
the  use  of  preventives.  Thus  the  educated 
class  tend  to  limit  their  families,  while  the 


54  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

careless  and  thriftless  breed.  The  weak- 
witted  girl  may  have  many  illegitimate  chil- 
dren, conceiving  again  as  soon  as  she  leaves 
the  home  for  the  fallen,  or  workhouse,  where 
she  was  confined,  while  the  genius  limits  his 
family  to  one.  How  many  of  the  upper  class 
have  limited  their  sons  to  one,  and  lost  their 
pride  and  hope  in  the  war ! 

There  is  some  danger  then  of  the  inefficient 
propagating  more  than  the  efficient. 

There  is  a  great  disadvantage  in  the  practice 
of  limiting  the  family  to  one  child;  there  is 
danger  of  the  only  child  growing  up  a  prig  or 
neurotic ;  the  tumble-up  struggle  of  big  families 
is  good  if  not  too  hard;  the  Cinderella,  the 
Aschenputtel,  the  Benjamin  of  the  stories  win 
the  prize.  The  single  child  is  over-coddled, 
made  a  weakling,  over-developed  in  sensibil- 
ity, the  parents,  not  children,  affording  his 
interest  and  amusement. 

But  who  can  wish  to  see  children  bom  in 
slimi  tenements? 

If  woman  had  been  evolved  as  an  egg-laying 
animal  like  a  bird,  how  easy  and  simple  the 


BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  55 

control  of  population,  and  what  a  different 
world — ^women  free  from  menstruation,  preg- 
nancy, and  the  pangs  of  birth,  the  eggs  selected 
and  hatched  in  incubators! 

In  consideration  of  the  methods  used  to  ' 
prevent  conception,  there  is,  first,  abstinence  , 
from  intercourse.    Every  excitement  is  given 
ko  youth  by  the  heightening  of  sexual  attrac- 
(tion  through  clothes,  the  showing  of  ankles,  | 
ilow  necks,  etc.     The  woman  impelled  to  seek 
a  mate  uses  every  artifice  to  attract.     The 
present  fashion  impels  the  yotmg  girl,  whose  I 
I  complexion  exposed  to  English  climate  should  | 
'  be  perfect  in  colour  and  texture,  and  is  spoilt 
( by  indoor  sedentary  life  and  bad  feeding,  to 
^  powder  and  paint  like  the  faded  harlot  of  the 
^  streets. 

The  one  effectual  means  for  keeping  down 

the  vigour  of  sexual  desire  is  by  a  wisely  regu- 

jlated  diet,  plus  hard  physical  exercise  and 

,  occupation.     The  boy  who  aims  at  excelling 

at  athletics  and  at  work,  who  has  his  energy  ^ 

I  fully  taken  up  and  recognizes  the  need  of 

/  keeping  perfectly  fit,   is  not  troubled  with  ' 


56  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

joverpowering  desire.  Overfeeding  and  lazi- 
ness are  great  incentives  to  sexual  immorality. 
Wet  or  fine,  yotmg  people  should  take  hard 
exercise.  If  too  wet  for  games,  let  them  take 
an  hotir  or  two's  walk  in  the  stinging  rain  and 
driving  wind,  and  return  filled  with  glow  of 
health  and  joy  of  clean  life. 

The  young  should  not  watch  but  should  play 
games.  The  present  system,  school  without 
adequate  playing  grounds  or  daily  discipline  in 
vigorous  outdoor  exercise,  with  the  cramming 
for  examinations,  entailing  home  work  and 
long  hours  of  sedentary  indoor  life,  debilitates 
himdreds  of  thousands  in  body  and  character. 

^  As  the  fulfilment  of  the  sexual  instinct  is 
gained  by  man  by  the  act  of  copulation,  in 
woman  by  childbirth,  the  use  of  preventives 

( tells  far  more  against  the  woman. 

^  Both  are  affected  in  character  by  the  use  of 
preventives,  through  the  lack  of  the  discipline 
which  comes  of  upbringing  children,  the  de- 
velopment of  qualities  of  the  imselfishness  and 
sacrifice,  the  sharing  in  children's  games  and 
renewal  of  youth  thereby,  etc. 


BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  57 

The  woman  who  uses  preventives  tends  to 
lose  her  beauty  early,  becomes  thin  and 
neurotic. 

The  woman  with  strong  maternal  feeling 
suffers  far  more  than  those  with  weak  feminine 
characteristics. 

Each  sex  has  within  the  body  rudiments  of 
the  sexual  organs  of  the  other  sex,  and  there 
are  great  differences  in  the  degree  of  feminine 
and  masculine  characteristics.  Some  women 
may  be  compared  to  Buff  Orpingtons,  who 
easily  become  broody  and  make  excellent 
mothers;  others  to  Leghorns,  who  never  want 
to  breed. 

There  are  vast  tracts  of  the  British  Empire 
waiting^ to  be  populated  by  the  British  race. 
Let  the  youth  of  the  overcrowded  cities  then 
emigrate  and  secure  room  for  a  healthy,  natu- 
ral, sexual  life,  a  more  virile  character,  and  far 
greater  happiness. 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  -  ^f 

I 

^     By  The  Very  Rev.  Dean  Inge,  D.D. 

/  Social  politics  and  religion,  the  two  most 
important  subjects  on  which  the  htiman  mind 
can  exercise  itself,  are  also  imforttmately  the 
two  subjects  on  which  passion  and  prejudice 
most  of  all  nm  riot,  and  on  which  the  voice  of 
calm  reason  has  least  chance  of  being  heard. 
The  question  of  population  touches  both  alike ; 
it  is  intimately  concerned  with  social  politics, 
and  no  less  intimately  with  sexual  morality, 
in  which  Christianity  has  from  the  first  main- 
tained an  uncompromising  conflict  with  secu- 
lar practice.  We  cannot  therefore  be  surprised 
if  the  majority  of  the  public  seem  unable  to 
treat  it  in  a  judicial  temper.  There  is  the- 
further  difficulty  that  the  subject  has  long  been 

58 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  59 

taboo  in  polite  society,  so  that  the  most  sur- 
prising ignoran,ce  prevails  about  the  rudimen- 
tary facts  upon  which  any  rational  discussion 
must  be  based.  Happily,  this  embargo  is 
now  being  taken  off,  so  that  there  is  more 
hope  than  ever  before  that  the  public  may  be 
able  to  consider  the  question  in  all  its  bearings, 
if  the  will  to  form  a  soimd  judgment  exists. 

The  poet  Schiller  said :  ''While  philosophers 
are  debating  about  the  government  of  the 
world,  Hunger  and  Love  are  performing 
the  task."  Hunger  and  Love  are  indeed  the 
motive  forces  which  ''make  the  world  go 
roimd."  In  primitive  societies  both  are  im- 
regulated;  civilization,  if  it  regulates  the  first, 
must  at  last  be  driven  to  regulate  the  second. 
In  barbarous  coimtries  numbers  are  kept 
down  by  war,  disease,  and  famine.  Constant 
fighting  destroys  the  balance  of  the  sexes; 
the  medicine  man  does  nothing  to  reduce 
the  mortality  from  disease;  and  failures  of  the 
food  supply  recur  periodically.  In  coimtries 
where  the  milk  of  animals  cannot  be  procured, 
every  baby  whom  its  mother  is  unable  to 


6o  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

suckle  necessarily  dies.  Population  in  these 
barbarous  conditions  generally  remains  nearly 
stationary,  except  among  pastoral  nomads, 
who  can  utilize  child-labour,  and  who  enjoy  a 
remarkable  immimity  from  microbic  diseases. 
These  wandering  tribes  used  to  swarm  periodi- 
cally, like  bees  to  the  extreme  inconvenience 
of  their  settled  neighbours.  In  coimtries  like 
ancient  Greece,  where  the  population  was 
healthy  and  the  soil  poor,  and  in  modem 
China,  which  is  peopled  up  to  the  extreme 
limit  at  which  it  is  possible  to  live  at  all,  sys- 
tematic infanticide  is  practised  as  a  sheer 
necessity.  But  wherever  we  look,  except  in 
the  rare  instances  when  immigrants  find  an 
empty  and  fertile  country,  it  is  nowhere  pos- 
sible for  the  natural  rate  of  increase,  which  of 
course  is  in  a  geometrical  ratio,  to  be  main- 
tained. The  natural  rate  of  increase  would 
double  the  population  every  twenty  or  twenty- 
five  years.  At  this  rate,  the  British  Isles  would 
have  to  support  some  750  millions  of  htmian 
beings  before  the  end  of  the  next  himdred 
years. 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  6l 

Voluntary  checks  on  parenthood  have 
always  been  practised,  though  not  to  the  ex- 
tent which  is  now  to  be  seen  in  all  civilized 
countries.  But  until  quite  recent  times,  pre- 
mature death  was  the  chief  means  by  which 
an  equilibrium  was  kept  up.  All  through  the 
Middle  Ages  there  was  some  drain  of  the  rural 
populations  into  the  towns;  but  the  old  walled 
town  was  such  a  hot-bed  of  disease  that  the 
urban  population  did  not  grow.  The  infants- 
mortality  was  enormous,  as  may  be  seen  by 
consulting  any  old  pedigree.  Dean  Colet's 
father,  a  wealthy  Lord  Mayor  of  London,  had 
twenty-two  children  in  thirty  years,  of  whom 
the  future  friend  of  Erasmus  was  the  only  one 
to  reach  maturity.  This  is  no  isolated  instance. 
Parents  seem  to  have  regarded  this  dismal 
procession  of  cradles  and  coffins  as  a  dispensa- 
tion of  Providence,  and  bore  lightly  the  loss 
of  children  for  whom  there  was  no  room.  In 
very  many  cases,  as  family  records  show,  the 
mother  also  died  early,  worn  out  by  excessive 
child-bearing.  Luther,  in  a  brutal  passage^ 
says,  ''What  matter?    It  is  what  she  is  there  v 


62  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

for.**  But  the  time  came  when  there  was  room 
for  a  large  increase  in  population,  and  (for 
reasons  which  I  think  have  not  been  made 
quite  clear)  the  children  began  to  survive. 
The  discovery  of  machinery  on  the  one  hand, 
,  .and  of  new  sources  of  abimdant  food  supply 
on  the  other,  produced  what  is  known  as  the 
^jindustrial  revolution.  We  exchanged  our 
manufactures  for  food,  and  the  coal  coimtries, 
among  which  Britain  led  the  way,  became 
gigantic  workshops,  depending  for  their  exist- 
ence on  being  able  to  supply  other  coimtries 
with  commodities  which  they  could  not  pro- 
duce so  cheaply  themselves.  To  this  system 
we  owe  our  great  towns,  our  great  forttmes, 
and  our  social  unrest.  As  the  population  grew, 
and  the  law  of  diminishing  returns  asserted 
itself,  there  came  more  speeding-up  in  manu- 
factiire,  more  exploitation  of  overseas  posses- 
sions, and  more  concentration  in  towns. 
Meanwhile,  improved  sanitary  and  medical 
science  more  than  doubled  the  average  ex- 
pectation of  life,  as  compared  with  the  Middle 
Ages:  diuing  the  last  sixty  years  the  gain  has 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  63 

been  from  30  to  35  per  cent.  So  great  an 
improvement  in  the  survival-rate  conld  not 
be  absorbed  by  increasing  trade;  for  though 
we  had  the  advantage  of  a  long  start,  other 
nations  were  becoming  serious  competitors. 
The  "Expansion  of  England"  was  necessarily 
slacking  off.  So  the  birth-rate  began  to  fall 
shortly  before  1880,  and  till  the  beginning  of 
the  war  the  decline  corresponded  closely  with 
the  fall  in  the  death-rate.  The  net  increase 
remained  at  its  earlier  figure,  about  i  per  cent, 
per  annum. 

During  the  nineteenth  century,  the  pressure 
was  partially  relieved  by  emigration,  without 
which  this  i  per  cent,  increase  every  year 
could  not  have  been  maintained.  There  is 
still  abundant  room  for  more  colonists,  but 
this  outlet  will  be  available  only  if  the  govern- 
ments of  the  Dominions  wish  to  receive  them, 
and  organize  schemes  of  colonization  in  co- 
operation with  the  home  government. 

But  the  dominant  factor  in  the  present 
situation  is  that  the  industrial  revolution  has 
led  to  a  general  discontent  in  the  populations 


64  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

of  the  large  towns,  whom  it  has  gathered  to- 
gether under  unnatural  conditions  such  as 
have  never  existed  before.  We  are  witnessing 
a  revolt  against  the  whole  system,  at  the  very 
time  when  competition  with  other  nations  was 
becoming  more  acute.  We  are,  as  I  have  said, 
losing  the  advantages  over  our  rivals  which 
we  have  enjoyed  since  the  reign  of  George  III, 
and  it  is  plain  that  industrialism  in  this  coun- 
try must  in  the  future  be  conducted  on  im- 
privileged  terms;  in  other  words,  the  relation 
of  wages  to  output  must  be  that  which  pre- 
vails in  the  world  generally.  But  it  is  equally 
plain  that  our  working-class  will  refuse  to 
accept  this  position.  They  will  not  be  content 
even  with  the  standard  which  existed  when 
things  were  most  prosperous.  This  revolt, 
which  I  am  not  concerned  either  to  justify  or 
to  condemn  in  this  paper,  means  nothing  less 
than  the  destruction  of  urban  industrialism  in 
England,  and  with  it  must  go  the  possibility 
of  exchanging  commodities  for  the  food  with- 
out which  our  present  population  cannot  live. 
There  may  be  a  partial  modification  of  the 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  65 

present  attitude  of  Labotir;  but  it  is  not  likely 
to  go  far  enough  to  restore  our  pre-war  pro- 
sperity, still  less  to  maintain  our  former  indus- 
trial ascendancy.  The  population,  therefore, 
is  more  likely  to  diminish  than  to  increase, 
and  the  arguments  of  militarists  will  have  no 
effect  in  stopping  a  process  in  which  Htmger, 
not  Love,  must  have  the  decisive  word. 

These  are  the  facts;  and  we  cannot  approach 
the  moral  aspect  of  the  subject  without  first 
realizing  what  the  problem  is  with  which  we 
have  to  deal. 

But  since  moral  choice  is  always  made  by 
individuals,  we  must  consider  what  the  usual 
motives  are  which  lead  married  couples  to 
restrict  their  families.  There  are  two  sections 
of  the  population  in  which  little  or  no  restraint 
is  practised.  These  are:  first,  the  reckless  and 
largely  parasitic  people  of  the  slums,  who, 
having  no  pride,  ambition,  or  self-restraint, 
produce  very  large  families,  their  birth-rate 
being  nearly  forty  per  thousand.  The  other 
class  consists  of  the  miners,  a  prosperous  and 
improvident  set  of  men,  much  given  to  gam- 


66  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

bling,  drinking,  and  other  amusements,  and 
among  whom — this  is  the  important  factor — 
the  women  do  not  contribute  to  the  family 
budget,  and  therefore  do  not  disarrange  the 
finances  of  the  household  by  pregnancy  and 
child-bearing.  Among  other  well-paid  work- 
men the  birth-rate  has  fallen  heavily,  es- 
pecially in  the  textile  trades,  and  others  in 
which  the  wife  is  a  wage-earner.  The  motive 
here  is  plainly  economic;  but  we  must  also 
allow  for  the  reasonable  desire  of  the  wife  to 
be  something  more  than  a  household  drudge, 
whose  working  hours  are  far  more  than  forty- 
eight  a  week.  The  agricultural  labourer  is 
often  obliged  to  defer  his  marriage  from  the 
difficulty  of  finding  a  cottage.  In  the  pro- 
fessional classes,  where  the  drop  has  been  most 
severe,  the  chief  motives  with  the  poor  clerk 
and  his  like  are  sheer  poverty,  and  the  wish  of 
the  wife,  who  is  often  well-educated,  to  have 
a  little  time  to  herself.  In  the  upper  middle- 
class  family  pride  is  a  potent  motive.  Parents 
wish  their  children  to  remain  gentlemen  and 
ladies,  and  desire  to  give  them  a  good  start  in 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  67 

life,  which  they  may  succeed  in  doing  if  they 
have  only  two  or  three  to  help.  The  incidence 
of  taxation,  and  artificial  competition  created 
by  State-aid  to  promising  boys  from  the  work- 
ing-class, bear  with  crushing  weight  upon  this 
class,  and  it  is  not  surprising  to  find  the  lowest 
birth-rate  among  them.  Doctors  are  proved 
by  statistics  to  have  the  smallest  families, 
then  teachers,  then  ministers  of  religion. 

So  far,  it  does  not  seem  to  me  that  we  have 
come  upon  anything  that  calls  for  moral 
censure,  except  that  the  public  is  culpably 
blind  to  the  disastrous  results  of  a  social  order 
which  encourages  the  multiplication  of  the 
most  undesirable  section  of  the  population — 
the  people  of  the  slums — ^while  it  penalizes 
and  steadily  eliminates  the  intellectual  elites 
who  in  this  country  are  also,  as  a  class,  far 
above  the  average  in  physique.  Family  pride 
may  perhaps  be  blamed  from  the  highest 
Christian  point  of  view,  but  it  is  a  natural  and 
certainly  not  ignoble  sentiment.  Social  pre- 
judices are,  in  point  of  fact,  quite  as  strong 
among  the  wage-earners,  though  aristocratic 


68  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

socialists  know  nothing  of  the  niunerous  class- 
divisions  among  the  poor.  Still  less  can  we 
condemn  the  revolt  of  the  female  sex  from  a 
regime  which  confined  them  to  what  the 
Germans  call  the  three  K's, — Kirk,  Kitchen, 
and  "Kids/'  Women  have  shown  that  they 
can  engage  profitably  in  almost  every  art  and 
craft ;  they  have  proved  equally  that  they  have 
a  right  to  share  in  the  culture  and  intellectual 
life  of  the  nation.  These  claims  are  reasonable, 
and  must  be  granted;  and  they  are  incompat- 
ible with  large  families,  except  in  exceptional 
cases.  There  is  also  another  cause  of  the  lower 
birth-rate  which  must  not  be  overlooked.  It 
is  very  common  for  medical  men  to  tell  hus- 
bands that  their  wives  ought  not  to  have 
another  child  for  two  or  even  three  years.  If 
this  advice  is  complied  with — and  it  cannot  be 
ignored  without  gross  want  of  consideration 
on  the  part  of  the  husband — such  families  as 
that  of  Dean  Colet's  parents  are  impossible; 
and  in  the  educated  classes  some  degree  of 
social  condemnation  falls  on  the  husband,  if  he 
allows  his  wife  to  suffer  in  health  by  having 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  69 

too  many  children.  It  is  interesting  to  find 
that  the  Registrar-General  is  of  the  opinion 
that  the  slight  diminution  of  cancer  among 
women  of  child-bearing  age  is  to  be  accounted 
for  by  the  longer  intervals  which  now  separate 
the  births  of  children.  We  come  lastly  to  the 
rich  leisured  class,  who  are  often  accused  of 
shirking  their  duties  to  the  next  generation 
from  purely  selfish  motives.  That  such  cases 
exist  cannot  be  denied ;  but,  from  the  national 
point  of  view,  the  mischief  which  they  do  con- 
sists chiefiy  in  bad  example,  since  their  nimi- 
bers  are  so  small  as  to  be  almost  negligible. 
Very  often  the  fashionable  lady  is  imjustly 
suspected:  she  has  done  everything  in  her 
power  to  become  a  mother,  but  nature  forbids. 
It  is  of  course  possible  that  a  more  natural  and 
less  self-indulgent  life  would  sometimes  bring 
her  into  a  normal  state  of  health.  There  is, 
however,  much  need  for  exhortation,  in  all 
classes  alike,  against  a  self-centred  individual- 
ism which  is  attractive  to  many  persons, 
especially  those  of  a  timid,  anxious  tempera- 
ment.   We  have  other  duties  to  society  besides 


70  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

the  duty  to  make  the  most  of  our  own  lives. 
To  make  sacrifices  for  one*s  children  is  a  form 
of  self-denial  which  brings  its  own  reward; 
and  a  woman,  especially,  who  despises  the 
honour  and  responsibilities  of  motherhood  is 
sinning  against  nature,  and  renouncing  what 
must  always  be  the  greatest  privilege  and 
glory  of  her  sex.  There  are  some,  no  doubt, 
who  are  called  to  benefit  posterity  by  bringing 
ideas  instead  of  children  to  the  birth,  and 
others  who  find  their  life's  work  in  the  service 
of  causes  which  demand  the  sacrifice  of  domes- 
tic happiness;  there  may  be  some  who  are 
legitimately  drawn  by  the  Catholic  ideal  of 
ascetic  virginity;  but  for  the  large  majority, 
the  high-road  of  marriage  and  parenthood  is 
marked  out  as  the  right  way  in  which  they  may 
serve  their  generation,  and  hand  on  the  torch 
which  they  have  received. 

It  remains  to  consider  briefly  the  contention 
that  it  is  wrong  to  interfere  with  the  processes 
of  nature.  If  this  argimient  were  pushed  to  its 
logical  conclusion  it  would  condemn  celibacy, 
and  prescribe  early  marriage  as  a  moral  duty 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  71 

for  all  healthy  persons.  It  seems  to  me  that 
such  a  view  in  untenable.  And  yet  there  is  a 
grave  danger  that  familiarity  with  the  laws  of 
physiology  may  lead  to  a  materialistic  view  of 
all  sexual  questions,  which  would  have  disas- 
trous results  on  the  morality  of  the  nation. 
Those  who  at  present  are  disposed  to  brush 
aside  all  the  scruples  of  old-fashioned  people 
about  birth-control,  may  find  in  the  near 
future  that  safeguards  have  been  sacrificed 
which  they  would  be  glad  to  recover.  The 
process  of  tearing  away  veils  is  destined  to  go 
further  even  than  it  has  gone  already.  There 
is  no  danger,  I  think,  to  marriage  as  an  institu- 
tion; it  is  far  too  deeply  rooted  in  human 
nattire  and  social  habit;  but  there  may  easily 
be  a  great  outbreak  of  outwardly  decent  licen- 
tiousness, protected  by  the  new  methods  of 
avoiding  its  consequences,  and  perhaps  even  a 
toleration  of  abnormal  practices  which  Chris- 
tian ethics  largely  diminished  and  drove  tinder- 
ground.  The  subject  is  as  difficult  as  it  is 
delicate.  Moralists  can  only  insist  on  the  ex- 
hortations of  St.  Paul  to  treat  those  natural 


72  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

functions  with  ^'sanctification  and  honoiir, 
not  in  the  lust  of  concupiscence,  '*  remembering 
the  fine  metaphor  that  our  bodies  are  the 
temples  of  God,  or  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  must 
be  left  to  the  conscience  of  individuals  to  apply 
this  principle  to  their  own  married  life.  The 
high-minded  man  and  woman  will  probably 
find  that  some  degree  of  self-restraint  is  not 
only  an  excellent  moral  discipline,  but  also 
increases,  by  spiritualizing,  the  happiness  of 
conjugal  love.  But  no  one  who  has  had  ex- 
perience and  received  the  confidences  of  others 
will  advocate  the  complete  separation  of  hus- 
band and  wife  for  long  periods,  or  even  per- 
manently; and  short  of  this,  abstinence  is  no 
solution  of  the  problem. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  the  destruction 
of  life  which  has  already  begun  is  never  justi- 
fiable, except  to  save  the  life  of  the  mother. 
Experience  shows  that  to  legislate  against 
methods  of  preventing  conception,  and  to 
pimish  those  who  impart  knowledge  of  this 
kind,  has  no  effect  except  to  encourage  the 
practice  of  abortion,  which  is  deplorably  pre- 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  73 

valent  in  America  and  in  the  North  of  England. 
We  must  rely  on  other  methods,  not  on  igno- 
rance, to  discourage  undesirable  habits,  if  we 
think  that  they  are  tmdesirable. 

The  whole  problem  is  created  by  the  fact 
that  in  the  reproductive  instinct  we  have  the 
strongest  instance  of  what  Metchnikoff  calls 
the  maladaptions  caused  by  civilization.  Just 
as  the  himian  body  contains  (according  to  this 
savant)  yards  of  tubing  which  the  science  of 
cookery  has  made  superfluous,  so  the  sexual 
instinct  is  far  stronger  than  is  necessary  for 
the  perpetuation  of  the  species.  A  great  part 
of  hiiman  misery  is  traceable  to  this  source. 
The  remedy  can  only  come  from  the  resources 
of  civilization  itself,  from  the  right  use  of  the 
reason  which  in  man  takes  the  place  of  instinct, 
and  enables  us  to  look  forward,  and  take  pre- 
cautions against  coming  dangers.  It  is  prob- 
able that,  when  the  food-producing  cotmtries 
have  all  been  brought  imder  cultivation, 
arrangements  will  be  made  to  preserve  an 
equilibrium  between  births  and  deaths  all  over 
the  world.    One  of  the  chief  causes  of  war  and 


74  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

economic  distress  would  then  be  removed. 
But  I  do  not  think  that  this  side  of  himian  life 
will  ever  be  taken  away  from  the  sphere  of 
morality  and  religion.  Life  is  sacred  at  both 
ends;  and  the  reverence  with  which  mankind 
has  always  surrounded  the  mysteries  of  birth 
and  death  is  no  irrational  survival,  but  a  part 
of  the  respect  which  we  owe  to  our  common 
htimanity,  ''made  in  the  image  of  God." 


II 

By  Harold  Cox 

When  Malthus  launched,  more  than  a  hund- 
red years  ago,  the  theory  of  population  which 
has  since  made  his  name  known  throughout 
the  world,  he  argued  that  a  deliberate  restric- 
tion of  the  birth-rate  was  necessary  in  order 
to  relieve  the  pressure  of  population  against 
the  means  of  subsistence.  It  happened,  how- 
ever, that  the  publication  of  the  Essay  on 
Population  was  followed  by  a  remarkable 
expansion  of  machine  industry,  with  the  result 
that  in  England  the  economic  demand  was  for 
more,  not  for  fewer,  people.  In  particular 
there  was  an  insistent  demand  in  the  manu- 
facturing districts  for  young  children  to  tend 
the  new  machinery.  A  wise  government  would 
have  prohibited  the  employment  of  children 
so  young;  but  governments  rarely  are  wise, 
and  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  increased  supply 

75 


76  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

of  children  was  largely  due  to  the  action  of  the 
State  itself  in  first  sanctioning  a  Poor  Law 
system  which  encouraged  irresponsible  parent- 
age, and  then  permitting  the  Poor  Law  Guar- 
dians to  send  wagon-loads  of  tiny  children 
from  the  agriciiltural  districts  of  the  South 
to  work  in  the  factories  of  the  North.  In  any 
case,  it  is  true  to  say  that  the  rapid  increase 
of  the  population  of  England  during  the  first 
half  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  the  econom- 
ic outcome  of  the  development  of  machine 
industry.  Large  families  were  wanted  to 
supply  labour  for  the  new  machines,  and  in 
turn  the  new  machines  produced  more  than 
enough  wealth  to  support  the  large  families, 
though  in  the  case  of  worst  paid  classes  it  is 
probable  that  the  standard  of  living  was  tem- 
porarily lowered.  These  facts  involve  no 
refutation  of  the  theory  that  population  tends 
to  expand  up  to  the  available  means  of  sub- 
sistence; on  the  contrary  they  confirm  that 
theory.  But  the  facts  did  imply  that  the 
practical  warnings  of  Malthus,  so  far  at  any 
rate  as  England  was  concerned,  were  for  the 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  77 

moment  unheeded.  In  spite  of  widespread 
poverty,  population  was  pressing  less  severely 
than  before  against  the  means  of  subsistence, 
because  the  means  of  subsistence  were  ex- 
panding even  more  rapidly  than  the  popula- 
tion. Machine  industry  and  world-wide  trade 
were  enabling  us  to  support  within  our  little 
island  a  larger  population  than  before.  It  is 
not  surprising  that  the  Malthusian  doctrine 
as  a  practical  code  of  life  was  temporarily 
forgotten. 

The  subsequent  revival  of  the  Malthusian 
doctrine  was  due  to  the  conscious  desire  of 
large  sections  of  the  population  for  an  im- 
proved standard  of  domestic  and  individual 
comfort.  Of  necessity  the  average  citizen 
looks  at  the  problem  of  population  not  from 
the  universal,  nor  even  from  the  national,  but 
from  the  personal  point  of  view.  Prospective 
parents  do  not  worry  their  minds  about  the 
potential  food  resources  of  the  universe;  they 
are  content  to  note  that  by  prudence  in  pro- 
creation they  can  secure  for  themselves  and 
their  children  a  larger  life  than  would  be  at- 


7S    THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

tamable  if  the  size  of  the  family  were  imre- 
stricted.  The  direct  comiection  between  cause 
and  effect  is  here  so  palpable  that  no  argument 
on  one  side  or  the  other  is  needed. 

This  aspect  of  the  problem  was  of  course 
present  to  the  mind  of  Malthus.  It  may 
indeed  be  described  as  the  dominant  motive 
of  his  Essay.  He  wished  to  raise  the  standard 
of  comfort  of  the  poorer  classes  by  checking 
the  multiplication  of  mouths.  But  he  had  to 
meet  the  opposition  which  every  proposal 
for  a  reduction  of  the  birth-rate  encounters 
from  people  whose  minds  are  dominated  either 
by  rigid  theological  dogma  or  by  a  vague 
socialistic  sentimentalism.  He  therefore  ex- 
amined the  general  problem  of  world  popula- 
tion in  order  to  justify  the  primary  proposition 
that  it  is  the  duty  of  parents  only  to  bring 
into  the  world  children  whom  they  can  afford 
to  maintain  in  comfort.  The  same  general 
considerations  are  involved  today.  The 
parents  who,  in  ever-increasing  ntmibers,  are 
practising  birth  control  for  indisputable  do- 
mestic advantages,  find  themselves  criticized 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  79 

from  the  outside  by  various  groups  of  persons 
who  even  go  so  far  as  to  assert  that  the  reduc- 
tion of  the  birth-rate  is  a  national  calamity. 
We  are  constantly  told  that  there  are  vast 
areas  of  still  undeveloped  territory ;  that  there 
are  incalculable  possibilities  of  scientific  dis- 
covery which  will  render  available  for  human 
enjoyment  natural  resources  now  largely  or 
wholly  wasted;  we  are  warned  that  if  our 
English  birth-rate  be  reduced  the  English  race 
may  be  swamped  by  races  more  prolific. 

Even  if  these  statements  and  warnings  could 
be  fully  justified,  they  would  constitute  no 
reply  to  the  theory  of  population  as  laid  down 
by  Malthus.  His  whole  contention  is  that 
population  ever  tends  to  increase  up  to  the 
means  of  subsistence,  unless  checked  either 
by  a  prudential  reduction  of  the  birth-rate  or 
by  the  positive  evils  which  follow  unlimited 
procreation.  With  a  wealth  of  historical  illus- 
tration he  showed  that  those  evils  include 
disease,  pestilence  and  famine,  racial  warfare, 
infanticide,  and  systematic  abortion. 

Thus  stated,  the  Malthusian  theory  is  so 


8o  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

obviously  true  as  to  be  almost  a  truism.  In 
all  forms  of  animated  life  the  inherent  capacity 
for  increase  is  practically  imlimited.  Malthus 
effectively  quotes  Franklin's  saying:  ''Were 
the  face  of  the  earth  vacant  of  other  plants  it 
might  be  gradually  sowed  and  overspread  with 
one  kind  only,  as  for  instance  with  fennel;  and 
were  it  empty  of  other  inhabitants  it  might  in 
a  few  years  be  replenished  from  one  nation 
only,  as  for  instance  with  Englishmen."  By 
one  means  or  another  this  inherent  capacity 
for  increase  must  sooner  or  later  be  checked. 
Even  if,  to  take  Franklin's  illustration,  all  the 
other  races  of  the  world  were  to  disappear  so 
as  to  leave  room  for  the  English  race  to  occupy 
the  whole  globe,  it  would  still  be  necessary  for 
that  race,  sooner  or  later,  to  cease  from  ex- 
panding. Nor  is  it  possible  to  argue  that  the 
issue  is  so  remote  that  it  need  not  now  be  con- 
sidered. For  where  a  rate  of  increase  is  not 
progressively  diminished,  the  volume  of  in- 
crease expands  with  ever-growing  rapidity. 
To  take  a  concrete  illustration :  the  population 
of  England  and  Wales  in  1801  was  8,893,000. 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  8i 

In  fifty  years  the  population  had  slightly  more 
than  doubled,  the  actual  increase  being  just 
over  nine  millions.  If  the  same  rate  had 
continued,  the  population  would  again  have 
doubled  by  1901,  but  the  number  of  persons 
added  would  have  been  not  nine  millions  but 
eighteen  millions.  In  the  next  fifty  years  the 
same  rate  of  increase  would  have  produced  a 
further  addition  of  thirty-six  millions;  then 
seventy-two  millions,  and  so  on,  till  in  less  than 
three  hundred  years  from  the  present  time, 
without  any  alteration  in  the  rate  of  increase ,  the 
population  of  England  and  Wales  would  have 
grown  to  2,295,000,000,  or  considerably  more 
than  the  present  population  of  the  whole  globe. 
The  arithmetical  law  which  produces  such 
results  as  these  is  ever  operative  and  inevit- 
able. It  follows  that  as  the  volume  grows  the 
rate  of  growth  must  be  diminished.  All  living 
things  are  compelled  to  observe  this  law.  Take 
for  example,  a  daffodil.  On  the  second  day 
after  it  has  peeped  through  the  earth  its  visible 
height  will  be  more  than  double  that  on  the 
first  day.    If  the  same  rate  of  increase  were 


82  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

maintained,  the  humble  daffodil,  even  before 
it  was  ready  to  flower,  would  have  out-topped 
the  highest  oak.  For  this  purely  arithmetical 
but  absolutely  inevitable  reason  the  popula- 
tion question  cannot  be  honestly  answered  by 
the  plea  of  postponement.  The  Anti-Mal- 
thusians  may,  of  course,  argue  that  the  present 
rate  of  increase  is  not  excessive  for  our  present 
needs;  they  may  even  argue  that  it  is  too  low. 
But  no  rate  of  increase,  however  low,  can  be 
maintained  indefinitely,  and  therefore  those 
who  wish  to  give  an  honest  answer  to  an  eter- 
nal problem  ought  to  be  willing  to  say  today 
by  what  means  they  think  the  rate  of  increase 
of  the  English  race  or  of  the  human  race  ought 
to  be  reduced  when  the  necessity  for  reduction 
can  no  longer  be  denied. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  the  problem  is 
not  theoretic  and  prospective,  it  is  actual  and 
practical.  The  inherent  power  of  increase  in 
our  population  is  today  being  checked,  and 
always  has  been  checked.  Both  the  pruden- 
tial check  of  a  controlled  birth-rate  and  the 
pimitive  check  of  an  exaggerated  death-rate 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  83 

are  today  operative,  as  they  always  have  been. 
At  no  time  in  our  history  have  all  the  members 
of  our  race  brought  children  into  the  world,  as 
rabbits  do,  to  the  full  extent  of  their  procrea- 
tive  capacity ;  at  all  times  death  has  exacted 
heavy  toll  of  infant  life,  and  preventible  dis- 
ease has  ever  been  rampant.  Therefore  no 
speculations  about  the  unexhausted  possi- 
bilities of  the  globe  justify  the  refusal  of  the 
anti-Malthusians  to  answer  the  plain  question : 
Do  you  wish  the  potential  rate  of  increase  of 
population  to  he  kept  down  by  a  prudential 
control  of  the  hirth-rate  or  hy  a  punitive  expan- 
sion of  the  death-rate? 

That  there  should  be  any  doubt  as  to  the 
reply  to  that  question  shows  the  extent  to 
which  human  judgment  can  be  warped  by 
theological  dogma.  The  control  of  the  birth- 
rate, whether  effected  by  the  postponement  of 
marriage  or  by  the  avoidance  of  conception, 
relieves  women  of  the  needless  suffering  of 
bringing  into  the  world  unwanted  children; 
relieves  the  human  race  of  the  cost  of  rearing 
new  beings  who  will  never  reach  maturity. 


84  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

More  than  this  the  control  of  the  birth-rate 
elevates  the  human  race  by  rendering  possible 
the  attainment  of  a  higher  standard  of  comfort 
for  the  families  concerned.  No  doubt  there 
are  some  parents  in  this  and  most  coimtries 
with  incomes  sufficient  to  give  a  thoroughly 
good  upbringing  to  all  their  children,  even  if 
the  families  range  to  ten  or  a  dozen.  But  that 
is  exceptional,  and  no  social  redistribution 
would  appreciably  alter  the  situation.  An 
equal  division  of  the  total  wealth  of  the  nation 
among  our  whole  population,  though  it  would 
reduce  enormously  the  well-being  of  the 
wealthy  minority,  would  add  but  a  small 
fraction  to  the  available  means  of  the  great 
majority,  even  if  the  process  of  division  did  not 
sweep  away  the  larger  part  of  the  wealth  to  be 
divided.  There  is  not  enough  wealth  produced 
to  enable  any  large  number  of  parents  to  give 
to  ten  or  a  dozen  children  the  life  of  leisure 
and  fresh  air,  of  vigorous  play  and  moderate 
learning,  which  has  developed  the  splendid 
type  of  manhood  embodied  in  Englishmen  of 
the  well-to-do  classes. 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  85 

Parents  belonging  to  those  classes  have  for 
more  than  a  generation  recognized  this  fact, 
and  instead  of  straining  their  pecuniary  re- 
soiirces,  as  well  as  the  health  of  their  woman- 
hood, have  had  families  of  but  moderate 
numbers,  to  whom  they  have  been  able  to  give 
a  thoroughly  good  upbringing.  Hitherto  the 
masses  of  the  population  have  not  followed 
this  personally  wise  and  racially  desirable 
example.  They  have  till  quite  recently  been 
content  to  go  on  multiplying  in  houses  too 
crowded  for  comfort  or  decency;  in  narrow 
streets  too  narrow  for  the  free  entry  of  sun- 
light and  fresh  air;  in  towns  too  large  for  a 
really  healthy  life.  The  results  are  plainly 
visble  in  the  contrast  of  feature  and  physique 
between  the  well-to-do  classes  and  the  urban 
masses.  It  is  only  necessary  to  watch  a  mili- 
tary procession  passing  through  the  streets, 
and  to  note  the  striking  difference  between  the 
appearance  of  the  rank  and  file  and  that  of 
the  majority  of  the  officers,  to  be  convinced 
of  the  effect  of  upbringing  upon  racial  develop- 
ment.    For  we  are  all — apart  from  the  few 


86  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

aliens  who  have  flooded  in — of  the  same  Eng- 
Hsh  stock,  and  men  whose  parents  started  at 
the  bottom  of  the  ladder  are  often  indistin- 
guishable physically  or  mentally  from  the 
descendants  of  aristocrats.  There  is  no  mys- 
tery about  the  matter.  Throughout  animal 
life  we  find  that  the  highest  types  are  the 
lowest  breeders. 

It  may  be  argued,  and  often  is  argued,  that 
if  we  reduce  our  population,  there  is  a  danger 
of  our  being  overwhelmed  by  more  prolific 
races.  The  argimient  is  superficially  plausible 
but  effectively  valueless  as  a  plea  for  an  in- 
creased birth-rate.  Take  the  case  of  England 
and  Germany.  Before  the  war  the  annual  rate 
of  increase  of  the  German  population  was  far 
greater  than  our  own,  in  spite  of  the  enormous 
infantile  mortality  prevalent  in  Germany. 
During  the  war  the  German  population  has 
been  reduced  while  the  English  population  has 
grown,  but  in  roimd  figures  the  population  of 
the  German  Empire  still  remains  at  about 
66,000,000  as  compared  with  about  46,000,000 
for  the  United  Kingdom.    These  figures  alone 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  87 

show  the  futility  of  attempting  to  engage  in  a 
procreation  contest  with  the  people  of  Ger- 
many. Even  if  we  went  back  to  the  maximum 
recorded  birth-rate  for  England  and  Wales, 
34.6  per  one  thousand  in  1876,  and  extended 
that  rate  to  the  whole  of  the  United  Kingdom, 
we  should  gain  nothing,  for  Germany  could, 
with  the  same  birth-rate,  produce  nearly 
seven  hundred  thousand  more  babies  per 
annum  than  we  could.  Is  it  indeed  seriously 
proposed  by  anyone  that  the  women  of  Eng- 
land should  enter  into  a  competition  with  the 
women  of  Germany  to  produce  children  whose 
final  destination  is  to  be  the  destruction  of 
one  another  on  the  battlefield? 

Take  again  the  Eastern  Asiatic  races.  If 
the  birth-rate  were  the  test  of  racial  strength 
the  peoples  of  India  and  China  would  long 
since  have  overrun  the  world.  In  both  these 
great  hives  of  humanity  the  masses  of  the 
population — ^partly  as  the  result  of  social  de- 
gradation, partly  from  a  childlike  obedience 
to  religious  dogma — ^pour  children  into  the 
world  without  the  slightest  regard  for  their 


88  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

prospects  of  maintenance.  As  a  necessary 
consequence  the  children  die  like  flies.  Many 
of  them,  in  China  at  any  rate,  are  deliberately 
killed  by  their  parents.  A  large  proportion 
of  those  who  survive  childhood  are  perman- 
ently weakened  in  constitution  because  they 
have  never  been  sufficiently  nourished,  and  the 
mortality  at  all  ages  in  Eastern  Asia  is  far 
higher  than  among  the  less  prolific  races  of 
Western  Europe.  From  the  point  of  view  of 
racial  efficiency  the  contrast  is  even  greater. 
India  was  conquered  by  England  at  a  time 
when  our  population  was  less  than  a  fifth  of 
what  it  now  is,  and  was  almost  stationary. 
The  higher  type  of  manhood  that  is  de- 
veloped by  control  of  the  birth-rate  will 
always  be  able  to  take  care  of  itself  against 
the  lower  types  produced  by  imlimited  pro- 
creation. 

Thus  the  patriotic  argument  against  birth- 
control  falls  to  the  groimd.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  domestic  and  personal  advantages  of  birth- 
control  are  obvious.  If  a  woman  is  called  upon 
to  have  children  as  often  as  is  physically 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  89 

possible,  her  life  is  one  long  illness,  and  her 
children  are  denied  that  individual  motherly- 
care  which  is  one  of  the  most  valuable  elements 
in  the  rearing  of  fine  types  of  manhood  and 
womanhood.  In  addition,  where  families  are 
large  there  must,  in  the  case  of  a  population 
like  our  own  which  is  predominantly  urban,  be 
overcrowding  both  in  houses  and  in  streets. 
This  difficulty  cannot  be  overcome  by  any 
schemes  of  State  housing,  however  many 
millions  may  be  added  to  the  national  debt  in 
order  to  provide  compact  workmen^s  dwellings 
at  less  than  cost  price.  The  proposed  dwellings 
will  not  give  to  a  large  family  the  elbow-room 
and  quiet  which  a  small  family  could  enjoy; 
nor  will  the  schemes  proposed  appreciably 
diminish  the  congestion  of  our  large  towns  with 
their  never-ending  noise  and  the  incessant 
friction  of  restless  crowds.  Yet  it  is  certain 
that  if  men  in  the  mass  are  to  attain  to  the 
higher  ideals  of  humanity,  they  must  not  only 
have  a  sufficiency  of  food  and  clothing,  they 
must  also  have  space  in  which  to  move  freely, 
quiet  in  which  to  think  seriously.    The  mass 


90  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

of  our  people — the  democracy  of  England — 
today  live  in  overcrowded  houses,  they  travel 
to  their  work  in  overcrowded  trams,  and  their 
leisure  is  spent  on  the  packed  benches  of  a 
picture  palace  after  perhaps  an  hour  of  wait- 
ing in  a  queue  outside  the  door.  When  illness 
overtakes  them,  the  only  change  is  from  an 
overcrowded  home  to  an  overcrowded  hospital. 
The  children  are  given  a  smattering  of  educa- 
tion in  classes  too  large  for  personal  attention 
on  the  part  of  the  teacher;  their  only  play- 
ground is  a  walled-in  courtyard  or  a  narrow 
back  street.  In  such  conditions  it  is  imposs- 
ible to  produce  the  best  types  of  hiimanity. 

But  no  fundamental  change  in  the  condi- 
tions can  be  effected  as  long  as  the  poorer 
classes  produce  children  without  any  regard 
to  the  available  means  for  their  support  and 
upbringing.  If  the  general  level  of  humanity 
is  to  be  raised,  the  poorer  classes  and  the  lower 
races  must  reduce  their  birth-rate  as  the  well- 
to-do  classes  in  the  higher  races  have  already 
done.  Birth-control  is  in  fact  essential  to 
human  progress,  for  it  is  a  necessary  condition 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  91 

for  the  improvement  of  the  racial  type.  It  is 
also,  for  purely  arithmetical  but  none  the  less 
inevitable  reasons,  the  only  possible  alterna- 
tive to  a  high  death-rate  with  all  the  human 
misery  thereby  entailed.  Yet  we  still  find 
qtiite  a  nimiber  of  people  opposed  to  the 
Malthusian  doctrine. 

Among  the  opponents  of  Malthusianism  are 
to  be  found  a  few  medical  men,  but  their  con- 
demnation of  birth-control  carries  little  weight 
in  the  face  of  the  statistical  fact  that  the  birth- 
rate among  medical  men  is  lower  than  that  in 
any  other  class  in  the  commtmity. 

The  real  weight  of  the  opposition  to  birth- 
control  comes  from  a  section  of  the  clergy  of 
the  established  Church  of  England,  and  from 
practically  all  the  clergy  of  the  Church  of 
Rome.  Both  these  ecclesiastical  groups  preach 
the  duty  of  unlimited  procreation.  Yet  the 
clergy  of  the  Church  of  England  have  ceased 
to  have  the  large  families  for  which  they  were 
once  famous,  and  now  rival  the  doctors  in  their 
low  birth-rate;  the  clergy  of  the  Church  of 
Rome  are  celibate. 


92  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

Ecclesiastical  teachings  with  regard  to  birth- 
control  is  avowedly  based  upon  theological 
dogma.  The  argiiments  on  the  subject  will 
be  found  set  forth  very  clearly  in  the  Report 
on  the  Declining  Birth-Ratey  published  by  the 
National  Birth-Rate  Commission  in  19 16. 
From  the  evidence  there  published,  it  appears 
that  some  clergymen  take  the  view  that  sexual 
intercoiurse  between  husband  and  wife  is 
entirely  reprehensible  except  for  the  purpose 
of  procreation.  This  extreme  view,  put  for- 
ward by  the  Bishop  of  Southwark,  was  not 
cotmtenanced  by  other  spokesmen  of  the 
Protestant  churches  or  of  the  Church  of 
Rome.  Their  general  view  was  that  the  desire 
for  sexual  intercotirse  was  a  divinely  implanted 
instinct,  and  might  therefore  legitimately  be 
gratified,  provided  no  "  tinnaturar'  means  were 
taken  to  interfere  with  the  Will  of  God  by 
preventing  conception. 

Here,  as  in  many  other  controversies,  the 
word  '^tmnatural'*  is  used  as  a  term  of  con- 
demnation without  any  attempt  being  made  to 
show  in  what  way  the  course  condemned  is 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  93 

contrary  to  nature.  In  the  evidence  referred 
to,  the  Christian  churches,  as  represented  by 
a  committee  of  some  of  the  Bishops  of  the 
Church  of  England  and  by  Monsignor  Brown, 
Vicar-General  of  the  Roman  Catholic  diocese 
of  Southwark,  expressed  their  approval  of 
sexual  intercourse,  after  the  wife  has  already 
become  pregnant.  Yet  it  might  fairly  be 
argued  that  such  action  is  '^imnatural,"  for  it 
contributes  nothing  towards  Nature^s  purpose, 
the  maintenance  of  the  race.  On  this  point 
at  any  rate  the  ecclesiastical  attitude  is  frankly 
hedonistic. 

The  same  ecclesiastical  authorities  go  further 
and  positively  recommend  that,  where  hus- 
band and  wife  for  any  cause  desire  to  limit 
their  family,  they  should  confine  their  inter- 
course to  the  period  of  the  month  when 
conception  is  improbable.  This  method  of 
birth-control  is  declared  to  be  *' natural.*' 
(See  pp.  358  and  403.)  But  is  it  natural  that 
an  act  arising  out  of  the  promptings  of  a 
powerful  animal  instinct  should  be  regulated 
by  close  scrutiny  of  the  calendar?    The  real 


94  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

reason  why  this  particiilar  method  of  birth- 
control  should  receive  ecclesiastical  approba- 
tion is  given  on  pp.  386  and  401.  It  is  there 
plainly  stated  that  this  method  is  legitimate 
because  its  success  is  uncertain.  In  other 
words  no  sin  is  committed  in  trying  to  dodge 
the  Divine  ordinance  which  connects  sexual 
intercourse  with  procreation,  provided  only 
an  off-chance  is  left  for  the  Will  of  God  to 
operate. 

The  more  effective  methods  of  birth-control 
are  condemned  as  sins  and  characterized  as 
"unnatural.''  Yet  one  of  these  methods  is 
both  simple  and  obvious,  and  has  probably 
been  practised  by  the  different  races  of  man- 
kind from  time  immemorial.  Man  is  part  of 
nature,  and  it  is  part  of  man's  nature  to  use 
his  brain  for  the  betterment  of  his  life.  Surely- 
it  is  more  "natural "  to  take  simple  precautions 
against  the  procreation  of  unwanted  children 
than  it  is  to  wear  clothes  or  to  cook  food. 

But  the  real  reason  for  the  ecclesiastical  con- 
demnation of  this  and  other  effective  methods 
of  prevention  is  purely  theological.    It  is  defi- 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  95 

nitely  set  forth  by  Monsignor  Brown  on  p.  41 1 
of  the  Commission  Report.  The  whole  matter 
turns  on  the  story  of  Onan,  as  related  in  the 
thirty-eighth  chapter  of  the  Book  of  Genesis. 
On  account  of  that  somewhat  squalid  story 
a  large  number  of  theologians  in  this  country 
— ^who  themselves  admit  the  sexual  instinct  to 
be  divinely  implanted — condemn  as  immoral 
the  gratification  of  that  instinct  except  when 
accompanied  by  the  risk  of  bringing  into  the 
world  unwanted  children. 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS 

I 

By  Dr.  Mary  Scharlieb,  C.B.E.,  M.S. 

The  importance  of  the  subject  of  artificial 
limitation  of  the  birth-rate  cannot  be  exag- 
gerated for  not  only  the  welfare  of  many  in- 
dividuals but  the  existence  of  the  Empire  itself 
may  be  at  stake.  The  subject  is  much  dis- 
cussed at  present,  and  with  evident  sincerity 
on  both  sides;  but  the  more  it  is  discussed  the 
less,  it  appears,  is  the  probability  of  agreement 
on  the  desirability  or  the  danger  of  artificial 
limitation. 

It  is  necessary  in  the  beginning  to  recognize 
clearly  the  essential  difference  between  the 
limitation  of  families  by  the  use  of  contra- 
ceptive methods,  and  the  limitation  of  the 

family  by  means  of  criminal  abortion.     All 

96 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS   97 

decent  people  feel  that  criminal  abortion  is  an 
offence  not  only  against  the  laws  of  God  and  of 
man,  but  that  it  is  also  an  outrage  on  common 
humanity  and  decency.  Unfortimately  the 
concensus  of  opinion  goes  no  further,  and  there 
are  many  members  of  the  medical  profession, 
and  many  people  who  are  sincerely  anxious  to 
promote  public  morality  and  well-being,  who 
fail  to  see  anything  objectionable  in  the  use  of 
contraceptives,  and  who  indeed,  in  some  in- 
stances, consider  that  such  practices  are  desir- 
able in  the  interests  of  overburdened  married 
couples. 

In  considering  the  subject  it  is  necessary 
to  bear  in  mind  that  both  parties  to  the  con- 
troversy intend  to  act  solely  for  the  benefit  of 
their  fellow-citizens,  and  that,  whether  mis- 
taken or  justified  in  their  views,  they  are 
entitled  to  a  respectful  hearing  and  to  generous 
consideration. 

Among  the  causes  of  birth  limitation  have 
been  mentioned  such  economic  difficulties  as 
arise  from  bad  housing,  the  absence  of  a  living 
wage,  the  desire  to  secure  a  good  education  and 


98  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

a  fair  start  in  life  for  the  children,  fear  on  the 
part  of  the  father  that  he  may  not  be  able  to 
provide  for  more  than  two  or  three  children, 
and  on  the  part  of  the  mother  that  the  bearing 
and  rearing  of  a  natural  family  might  be  too 
much  for  her.  Finally,  in  some  cases,  there  is 
the  absolutely  selfish  reason  that  the  possession 
of  a  large  family  would  necessarily  interfere 
with  the  parents'  comfort  and  enjoyment. 
With  the  exception  of  this  last  class  of  objec- 
tion to  a  natural  family,  there  is  at  any  rate 
some  plausible  reason  for  the  practice  of  limi- 
tation. Among  the  most  cogent  of  these  is  the 
housing  difficulty.  It  cannot  be  right  that 
father,  mother,  adolescent  boys  and  girls, 
yotmg  children  and  infants,  should  live  and 
sleep,  should  eat  and  wash,  in  a  one  or  two- 
roomed  tenement.  This  difficulty,  however,  is 
now  generally  recognized,  and  the  new  Min- 
istry of  Health  has  placed  the  housing  question 
in  the  forefront  of  the  reforms  that  it  hopes  to 
accomplish.  Up  to  the  present  time  there  has 
been  the  dilemma  that  either  the  family  had  to 
be  adapted  to  the  nimiber  of  rooms  for  which 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS     99 

the  father  could  afford  to  pay,  or  that  every- 
thing else  had  to  be  sacrificed  to  the  acquisi- 
tion of  the  necessary  house  room.  A  different 
aspect  of  the  same  problem  chiefly  concerns 
the  wife  and  mother.  Her  life  is  made  almost 
impossibly  difficult  and  hard  when  she  has  to 
bring  up  a  family  in  one  or  two  rooms  without 
any  supply  of  water  except  from  a  tap  in  the 
yard,  which  may  be  five  or  six  storeys  below, 
and  when  the  water  procured  and  carried  up 
the  many  flights  of  steps  has  still  to  be  boiled 
before  it  can  be  used  for  household  or  personal 
cleanliness. 

All  the  influences  of  the  people's  environ- 
ment seem  to  be  against  the  natural  impulse  of 
parents  to  increase  their  family.  Landlords, 
employers,  neighbours,  and  self-interest,  for- 
bid the  natural  increase,  and  it  is  not  surprising 
that  under  such  circumstances  methods  of 
limitation  should  be  practised  if  they  are 
known,  and  that,  failing  this,  too  many  poor 
women  practise  criminal  abortion  in  the  hope 
of  lessening  their  burden.  The  sympathy  felt 
with  people  confronted  by  so  serious  and  diffi- 


100  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

ctdt  a  problem  cannot  fail  to  be  great  when 
once  their  difficulties  are  understood,  but 
unfortunately,  from  the  time  that  the  rise  of 
industrialism  caused  an  ever-increasing  flow 
of  people  into  our  towns  and  cities,  there  has 
appeared  to  be  very  little  effort  to  instruct 
employers  and  their  representatives  in  the 
consequences  that  inevitably  follow  such  ur- 
banization. Probably  in  this,  as  in  many 
other  directions,  the  greatly  increased  know- 
ledge and  influence  of  women  will  assist  in  the 
solution  of  the  problem.  Of  late  years  women 
have  learnt  more  of  the  facts  of  life  and  of  the 
difficulties  of  social  and  industrial  problems 
than  they  ever  knew  before,  and  it  is  fair  to 
hope  that  with  an  increase  of  knowledge  and  a 
deeper  sense  of  responsibility,  they  will  do 
much  to  help  towards  the  provision  of  good 
housing  and  of  adequate  wages. 

With  regard  to  the  limitation  of  the  family 
among  those  who  have  better  means  than  the 
wage-earning  class,  but  who  are  far  from  being 
affluent,  the  difficulties  connected  with  the 
natural  increase  of  the  family  are  less  con- 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  loi 

cemed  with  absolute  want  of  house  room  and 
with  employment  difficulties,  but  they  are  in- 
timately connected  with  the  education  of  the 
children  and  the  maintenance  of  what  they 
consider  to  be  their  proper  social  status.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  we  ought  all  of  us  to  have 
learnt  during  the  war  that  many  things  we 
formerly  thought  essential  are  of  no  import- 
ance, and  that  we  can  all  respect  each  other 
even  although  we  keep  fewer  servants,  wear 
less  fashionable  clothes,  and  keep  a  simpler 
table.  The  question  of  education  is  in  process 
of  solution.  The  new  Education  Bill  will  do 
much  to  secure  not  only  primary  and  second- 
ary education  but  a  more  or  less  comfortably 
graduated  slope  up  to  university  status. 
The  fears  of  middle-class  parents  that  their 
children  will  not  receive  a  good  education  may 
now  be  considered  to  be  on  a  level  with  their 
fears  that  if  they  have  a  natural  family  they 
may  fall  below  their  proper  social  dignity,  and 
will  diminish  as  the  hope  of  better  things  grow 
brighter. 

The  mere  absolutely  selfish  reluctance  to 


102  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

have  a  family  is  totally  unworthy  of  a  people 
who  understand  so  well  how  to  bear  the  heavy 
burdens — ^financial,  social,  and  family — that 
we  have  borne  since  19 14. 

Reasons  Against  Limitations  of  Families 

Limitation  of  families  is  wrong  and  danger- 
ous because  it  does  not  control  nor  discipline 
sexual  passion,  but  by  removing  the  fear  of 
consequences  it  does  away  with  the  chief  con- 
trolling and  steadying  influence  of  sexual  life. 

Secondly,  the  limitation  of  the  family  is  not 
really  in  the  interest  of  over-burdened  mothers. 
It  may  relieve  them  of  too  frequently  reciuring 
child-bearing,  and  from  the  biurden  of  too  large 
a  household ;  but  on  the  other  hand,  by  remov- 
ing the  chief  check  on  the  husband's  desires 
and  demands,  it  destroys  the  wife's  protection 
from  his  too  great  insistence  and  persistence. 

Thirdly,  the  possibility  of  satiating  desire 
without  incurring  the  risk  of  procreation  tends 
to  the  over-development  of  the  sexual  side  of 
the  characters  of  both  man  and  woman.    It  is 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  103 

as  if  the  loathsome  practices  of  Heliogabalus 
made  perpetual  eating  and  drinking  possible. 
As  Foerster  says:  ''The  situations  which  will 
necessarily  arise  from  the  man*s  sexuality 
being  exclusively  directed  towards  sensuous 
gratification,  and  being  unaccustomed  to 
control,  will  far  surpass,  in  tragedy,  sordidness, 
and  poisonous  consequences,  anything  which 
could  possibly  arise  from  the  most  imlimited 
child-bearing.  The  increase  of  man's  subjec- 
tion to  passion  and  artificial  sensuousness  will 
be  disastrous." 

The  picture  of  a  society  under  a  regime  of 
uncontrolled  licence,  of  unbridled  passion,  and 
absolute  self-indulgence,  is  far  from  attractive. 
It  would  be  in  all  respects  worse  than  anything 
imagined  by  the  Epicureans.  The  countries 
which  practised  such  self-abuse  would  rapidly 
degenerate,  and  would  show  a  lack  of  physical 
vigotu*  and  of  moral  greatness.  If  the  inten- 
tional restriction  of  offspring  was  practised 
chiefly  by  the  educated  classes,  the  balance  of 
power  and  of  government  would  necessarily 
incline  to  those  who  were  less  well  educated 


104  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

but  more  prolific,  and  who,  unforttinately, 
would  not  have  behind  them  the  steadying 
traditions  of  unselfishness,  of  self-control,  and 
of  capacity  for  command.  The  condition  of 
such  a  State  would  be  one  of  sheer  materialism, 
the  conduct  of  life  depending  entirely  on  bodily 
desires,  not  on  true  bodily  welfare,  while  the 
capacity  for  mental  and  moral  greatness  would 
steadily  diminish.  Those  who  approve  and 
inculcate  the  voluntary  limitation  of  families, 
and  who  would  divorce  the  sexual  act  from  the 
intention  of  procreation,  tell  us  that  life  is 
imperfect  without  the  exercise  of  all  the  func- 
tions of  the  body;  that  health  both  of  body 
and  mind  must  suffer  unless  sexual  desires 
receive  ample  gratification;  and  that  the  denial 
of  gratification  to  sexual  impulse  is  injurious 
to  the  physical  and  moral  well-being  of  both 
men  and  women.  They  would  have  us  believe 
that  men  who  live  continent  lives  become 
impotent,  and  that  their  nervous  systems 
suffer  from  their  self-restraint.  That  these 
statements  are  not  generally  correct  is  proved 
by  the  experience  of  thousands  of  men  and 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  105 

women,  who  for  various  reasons  live  celibate 
lives  in  absolute  chastity,  and  who  maintain 
physical  vigour  and  nervous  integrity.  This  is 
not  only  true  of  clergy  and  the  religious  orders, 
but  also  of  many  men  and  women  who  for 
various  reasons  connected  with  work  or  with 
family  circumstances  have  neither  married  nor 
have  sought  physical  indulgence.  Doctors 
are  practically  unanimous  in  the  opinion  that 
yotmg  men  and  young  women,  even  during 
the  years  when  passion  is  strongest  and  self- 
control  most  difficult,  can  safely  practise 
continence;  that  it  does  not  diminish  their 
subsequent  fertility,  nor  does  it  injure  their 
health.  If  these  young  people  can  be  con- 
tinent without  suffering  injury,  still  more  can 
those  who  are  older  and  whose  passions  are 
less  eager.  In  the  case  of  the  married  couple, 
their  mutual  love  and  the  tender  intimacy  of 
abstinence  may  be  more  difficult  on  account  of 
their  lives,  but  even  in  such  cases  abstinence 
can  be  practised  without  injury,  although  it 
may  be  that  it  entails  more  regret  and  more 
difficulty.    There  can  be  few  cases  in  which 


I06  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

absolute  abstinence  is  necessary  for  married 
couples  apart  from  those  who,  owing  to  im- 
healthiness  of  mind  or  body,  ought  not  to 
have  entered  into  the  contract  of  marriage. 

During  himdreds  of  years  chivalry  and  fine 
feeling  have  tended  to  spiritualize  man's  rela- 
tion to  woman.  The  finer  and  the  more  manly 
the  man,  the  greater  has  been  the  delicacy  and 
consideration  which  marked  his  conduct  to  his 
wife,  and  to  all  women;  and  one  of  the  saddest 
implications  of  the  present  proposal  to  pro- 
mote a  purely  animal  relation  between  man 
and  woman  is  the  fact  that  it  tends  to  lower 
the  man  to  the  level  of  the  brutes.  Of  course 
this  is  not  the  object  of  those  who  advocate  the 
volimtary  limitation  of  the  family,  but  it  is 
the  practical  outcome  of  such  a  procedure. 

A  consideration  of  the  relations  between  the 
sexes  in  the  lower  orders  of  creation  shows  that 
at  any  rate  in  the  higher  order  of  mammals, 
intercotirse  between  the  male  and  female 
occurs  only  at  certain  intervals,  and  that  it  is 
normally  followed  by  pregnancy.  It  is  rare 
for  the  female  to  be  willing  to  receive  the  ad- 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  107 

vances  of  the  male  except  at  regular  intervals, 
special  to  each  variety  of  animal.  Probably 
the  much  more  frequent  desire  of  human 
beings  is  partly  due  to  the  fact  that  they  are 
brought  up  to  expect  and  to  claim  unlimited 
sexual  intercourse  as  a  right,  partly  to  the 
tinfortunate  dual  standard  of  legal  morality, 
and  partly  to  the  inferior  legal  and  social 
position  of  woman,  which  has  led  to  the 
opinion  that  whereas  any  lapse  from  morality 
on  her  part  must  bring  with  it  social  ostracism 
and  censure,  it  has  very  generally  been  con- 
sidered neither  wrong  nor  discreditable  for 
men  to  consort  with  women  who  were  not 
their  wives,  even  after  marriage. 

We  are  told  that  it  is  useless  to  bring  religion 
and  ecclesiastical  law  into  what  ought  to  be 
considered  a  purely  natural  question.  But 
after  all,  the  great  majority  of  the  human  race 
do  believe  in  the  existence  of  a  God,  and  the 
existence  of  the  Churches  is  a  concrete  fact 
acknowledged  by  all  States  whether  civilized 
or  imcivilized. 

The  attitude  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 


io8  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

on  the  questions  we  are  considering  is  that 
there  ought  to  be  no  restriction  of  the  family ; 
that  unmarried  individuals  should  live  in  ab- 
stinence and  purity ;  and  that  married  couples 
should  come  together  only  with  the  intention 
of  procreation.  The  discipline  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  is  very  strenuous  in  theory, 
the  penalty  for  breaking  her  rule  going  to  the 
length  of  withholding  the  Sacrament  from 
offenders  against  her  law.  It  is  impossible  to 
pretend  that  all  Roman  Catholics  obey  the 
law  of  their  Church  in  this  matter,  but  that 
something  is  achieved  by  her  directions  is 
proved  by  the  fact  that  the  average  number 
of  children  in  Roman  Catholic  families  is  6.6 
as  against  an  average  of  3.13  in  the  general 
comraunity. 

The  attitude  of  the  Church  of  England  in 
this  matter  is  embodied  in  the  resolution  of  the 
Lambeth  Conference  of  Bishops.  This  resolu- 
tion pronounces  that  "deliberate  tampering 
with  nascent  life  is  repugnant  to  Christian 
morality."  It  advocates  a  "natural  and  tem- 
perate use  of  a  state  appointed  by  God/' 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  109 

The  Bishops  recognize  that  under  certain 
conditions  of  health  and  of  finance  the  natural 
increase  of  the  family  may  be  undesirable,  and 
that  some  married  couples  may  have  to  live  in 
abstinence.  Further,  they  are  of  opinion  that 
**  Christian  chastity  in  married  people  means 
the  power  to  bear  all  this  without  injury  to  the 
wife  or  sinful  indulgence  with  others.  Such 
chastity  will  by  some  be  found  exceedingly 
hard,  but  it  is  entirely  consistent  with  health." 
They  believe  that  in  some  cases  restriction  of 
intercourse  to  the  mid-menstrual  period  may 
Stiffice,  and  they  hold  that  recourse  to  drugs 
and  to  appliances  is  dangerous,  demoralizing 
and  sinful.  In  their  opinion  restriction  "errs 
against  purity  by  isolating  the  physical  side  of 
sexual  union,  and  making  it  an  object  in  itself 
apart  from  its  proper  purposes.'* 

With  regard  to  the  Jewish  Chtirch,  we  learnt 
in  1 91 6  from  the  Chief  Rabbi  that  ''among  the 
Jews  the  use  of  preventives  is  strongly  con- 
demned as  unclean  and  demoralizing.  The 
only  exceptions  that  could  ever  be  allowed  are 
where  there  is  danger  to  life ;  this  consideration 


no  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

overrides  almost  all  moral  rules.  Every  male 
Jew  is  bidden  to  marry  and  have  children.  A 
widower  with  less  than  two  children  must 
marry  again.  Childlessness  is  regarded  as  a 
misfortime  or  a  disgrace.  Marriages  of  per- 
sons physically  or  mentally  unfit  for  healthy 
parenthood  are  severely  forbidden.  The  wel- 
fare of  the  next  generation  is  the  object  chiefly 
kept  in  view." 

The  attitude  of  the  Free  Churches  was  less 
definite,  but  the  great  majority  of  Noncon- 
formists as  represented  by  several  leaders  of 
the  Free  Churches  have  recently  stated  that 
"if  confronted  with  the  problem  they  would 
imhesitatingly  condemn  the  use  of  all  mechani- 
cal or  chemical  means  of  prevention  and  would 
strongly  insist  on  the  volimtary  moral  control 
of  all  natiu-al  fimctions." 

This  is  a  very  remarkable  consensus  of 
opinion,  and  it  is  only  of  late  years  that  the 
duty  of  maintaining  the  natural  function  and 
of  accepting  the  consequences  of  marriage  has 
been  doubted.  There  have  always  been  people 
who  failed  to  live  up  to  their  convictions,  and 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  in 

of  course  immorality  and  an  improper  use  of 
the  married  state  have  always  existed,  but  it 
has  been  reserved  for  our  generation  not  only 
to  insist  on  doing  wrong  but  to  justify  the 
wrong-doing,  to  seek  to  spread  the  knowledge 
and  means  of  wrong-doing;  not  only  to  justify 
it  but  to  present  it  to  the  world  as  a  good  and  a 
right  procedure,  as  something  to  be  aimed  at 
by  those  who  desire  their  own  welfare  and  the 
welfare  of  their  children. 

Among  those  whose  opinions  are  on  novel 
lines  and  held  seriously,  even  religiously,  is  Mrs. 
Marie  Stopes,  D.Sc.  As  revealed  by  her  writ- 
ings, she  is  frankly  and  emphatically  in  favour 
of  the  limitation  of  families.  She  discusses 
the  question  in  her  books  and  especially  in 
Chapter  IX  of  Married  Love.  She  is  of  the 
opinion  that  although  some  men  may  find 
abstinence  easy,  the  majority  do  not — that 
to  nearly  all  men  complete  abstinence  is  irk- 
some and  difficult,  while  to  some  men  such 
restraint  amounts  to  physical  and  mental 
torture. 

In   Married  Love   Dr.   Stopes  defines  her 


112  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

position  and  argues  that  much  harm  is  done 
to  married  couples  partly  by  painful  efforts  at 
abstinence,  partly  by  the  interruption  of  their 
relations,  and  partly  by  the  means  taken  to 
prevent  the  natural  consequences  of  matri- 
mony. In  a  second  book,  Wise  Parenthood, 
Dr.  Stopes  reviews  the  contraceptive  methods 
usually  practised,  and  finds  that  some  of  them 
are  ineffectual  and  others  are,  in  her  opinion, 
harmful  to  husband  or  wife  or  to  both  of  them. 
She  then  proceeds  to  describe  a  method  which 
she  considers  safe,  effectual,  and  easy  of  ap- 
plication. 

In  both  these  books,  and  also  in  a  pamphlet 
entitled  "A  Letter  to  Working  Mothers,'*  Dr. 
Stopes  maintains  the  view  that  artificial  restric- 
tion of  conception,  would  result  in  the  birth 
of  finer,  healthier,  and  more  beautiful  children. 
According  to  Dr.  Stopes,  this  result  would  be 
secured  by  the  intervals  between  child-bearing 
being  longer.  The  mother's  health  in  general, 
and  her  capacity  for  child-bearing  in  particular 
would  thus  be  maintained  at  a  higher  level; 
and  the  children  who  are  generated  when. both 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  113 

father  and  mother  desire  an  increase  in  the 
family  are  bound  to  be  better  specimens  than 
those  produced  by  careless  or  unwilling  par- 
ents. Dr.  Stopes  emphasizes  very  strongly 
the  right  of  every  woman  to  dispose  of  her  own 
body,  and  is  therefore  of  opinion  that  she 
should  be  free  to  receive  her  husband's  ad- 
vances only  when  she  is  fully  desirous  of  doing 
so.  In  passing,  one  may  well  admit  the  justice 
of  the  view  that  a  woman  should  not  be  coerced 
into  motherhood,  nor  indeed  into  sexual  union, 
but  surely  the  true  freedom  and  safety  of 
woman  should  be  secured  by  the  chivalry 
and  reverent  love  of  her  husband ;  and  it  is  to 
be  remembered  that  contraceptive  methods, 
far  from  aiming  at  giving  the  mother  full  con- 
trol over  her  own  body,  aim  only  at  preventing 
conception,  and,  by  relieving  the  husband  of 
all  responsibility  and  fear  of  consequences, 
the  use  of  them  inevitably  tends  to  make  his 
demands  greater. 

It  is  also,  as  has  been  already  pointed  out, 
extremely  unfair  to  the  woman,  for  while  de- 
fending her  against  too  frequent  conception, 


n 


114  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

it  tends  to  make  her  still  more  liable  to  \mdue 
sexual  demands. 

The  injury  that  a  general  reception  of  con- 
traceptive teaching  would  inflict  upon  the 
immarried  is  even  greater.  A  knowledge  of 
the  methods  of  preventing  conception  cannot 
but  tend  to  break  down  the  safeguards  that 
are  so  badly  needed  by  many  unmarried  men 
and  women.  The  mere  discussion  of  contra- 
ceptive methods  is  lowering  to  the  moral 
sense  and  to  the  innate  reserve  and  purity  of 
decently  brought-up  young  people.  That  such 
a  subject  should  be  made  the  matter  of  public 
discussion  is  a  deep  injury  to  the  conscience 
of  the  nation,  and  if  the  methods  detailed  by 
Dr.  Stopes  should  become  generalized,  there 
is  reason  to  fear  that  many  thousands  of 
young  people  who  might  otherwise  have  re- 
tained their  virtue,  and  who  might  have  looked 
forward  to  honourable  matrimony,  will  be  in- 
jured both  in  body  and  soul.  It  is  also  prob- 
able that  a  very  considerable  proportion  of 
unmarried  people  who  indulge  in  promiscuous 
relations   will   be   in   danger   of   contracting 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  115 

venereal  diseases.  In  short,  it  would  appear 
that,  should  the  nation  at  large  listen  to  such 
teaching  and  adopt  it,  those  who  have  put  it 
forward  must  be  numbered  amongst  the 
greatest  enemies  that  our  race  has  known. 

Among  the  serious  and  thoughtful  advocates 
of  birth  restriction  must  be  nimibered  Dr. 
Killick  Millard,  Medical  Officer  of  Health  of 
Leicester,  who  published  his  views  in  the 
Nineteenth  Century  for  November,  191 8.  As 
the  result  of  inquiries  that  he  made  among  his 
professional  brethren,  he  found  that  a  consider- 
able majority  of  them  did  not  consider  that 
the  use  of  contraceptive  methods  led  to  es- 
trangement between  husbands  and  wives,  or 
to  any  physical  injury. 

Dr.  Millard  was  anxious,  as  he  said  in  his 
article,  that  this  very  important  subject  should 
be  further  investigated.    In  his  view  the  de-    \ 


sideratimi  was  a  non-injurious,  reliable,  and 
practicable  method  for  preventing  conception, 
and  he  thought  that  if  it  could  be  established 
that  scientific  methods  properly  applied  were 
not  injurious  to  either  husband  or  wife,  there 


Ii6  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

would  be  good  reason  for  asking  the  Bishops 
to  reconsider  their  attitude.  He  pleaded  that 
from  the  eugenic  point  of  view  the  present 
position  was  most  imsatisfactory,  because 
birth-control  is  practised  by  the  Ai  classes  and 
is  neglected  by  the  C3  classes;  and  further 
that  if  birth-control  were  selective,  so  as  to 
operate  in  cases  where  an  hereditary  taint 
existed,  it  would  be  a  valuable  eugenic  in- 
strument. 

It  has  also  been  urged  that  of  necessity  the 
rate  of  the  natural  increase  of  the  population 
must  decline  as  its  volume  increases,  and  that 
this  reduction  must  be  brought  about  by  vol- 
untary reduction  of  the  birth-rate  or  by  an 
increase  in  the  rate  of  infantile  mortality. 
Now  it  is  clear  that  ordinary  himianity  and 
national  righteousness  alike  forbid  any  careless 
increase  in  the  mortality  rate,  and  a  little  re- 
flection shows  that  voltintary  restriction  of 
the  birth-rate  is,  to  say  the  least,  not  necessary. 
There  are  wide  spaces  of  the  earth  awaiting  a 
tide  of  population  to  exploit  their  riches,  and 
even  our  own  national  estate  is  badly  imder- 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  117 

manned.  We  are  told  that  some  time  in  the 
future  the  total  surface  of  the  earth  will  not 
carry  sufficient  harvests  to  feed  its  population, 
but  it  is  evident  that  that  time  is  not  near  at 
hand,  and  also  that  the  resources  of  science 
have  yet  to  be  devoted  to  the  extraction  of  the 
many  undeveloped  gifts  of  nature.  Intensive 
cultivation,  chemical  and  electrical,  is  in  its 
infancy,  and  any  talk  of  insufficient  production 
is  premature.  At  present  we  are  suffering 
from  insufficient  population. 

Put  very  briefly,  the  advocates  of  birth-con- 
trol appear  to  desire  it  because  in  their  opinion 
men  and  women  are  not  strong  enough  nor 
wise  enough  to  practise  self-control.  They  are 
honestly  convinced  that  marriage  is  not  for 
the  procreation  of  children,  for  mutual  love 
and  support,  nor  for  avoidance  of  sin,  but 
that  it  is  to  afford  free  and  legitimate  outlet 
for  sexual  desires — that  under  the  segis  and 
sanction  of  matrimony  there  shall  be  afforded 
lifelong  opportunities  for  unlimited  sexual 
gratification.  To  sustain  this  argument  certain 
subsidiary  reasons  are  adduced — such  as  the 


ii8  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

diffictilty  of  providing  housing  accommodation, 
the  impossibiUty  of  the  man  providing  for 
more  than  two  or  three  children,  the  injury 
inflicted  on  wives  by  frequently  repeated 
child-bearing,  the  difficulty  of  rearing  a  large 
family,  and  the  fear  that  the  world  itself  will 
be  tmable  to  sustain  the  children  that  may  be 
begotten. 

A  consideration  of  these  aguments  leads  to 
the  conclusion  that  the  majority  of  those  who 
advance  them  are  thinking,  not  of  the  right 
and  wrong  involved  by  limitation  of  families, 
nor  of  the  spiritual,  moral,  and  nervous  injury 
that  might  be  inflicted  by  so  doing,  but  that 
they  are  chiefly  considering  the  question  from 
the  physical,  the  hedonistic,  and  material 
points  of  view.  The  argimients  in  favour  of 
contraceptive  methods  appear  to  be  chiefly 
that  a  natural  family  must  in  many  cases 
prove  a  heavy  financial  burden  on  both  parents, 
and  also  make  an  excessive  demand  on  the 
strength  and  energy  of  the  mother.  Secondly 
that  abstinence  even  for  a  time,  or  limited  to 
certain  periods  of  the  month,  is  impracticable 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  119 

for  most  people,  and  that  it  is  making  too 
great  a  demand  on  the  self-control,  the  hus- 
bandly affection,  and  the  chivalry  of  men. 

With  regard  to  the  economic  aspect  of  the 
question,  one  would  like  to  suggest  that  hous- 
ing, wages,  and  education,  together  with  all 
other  necessities  of  life,  ought  to  be  adapted  to 
the  population,  and  not  the  population  to  the 
economic  considerations.  If  ever  there  were  a 
time  in  the  history  of  the  world  when  the  work- 
ing-class population  had  the  right  and  the 
power  to  insist  upon  a  great  amelioration  of 
their  lot,  that  time  is  the  present.  The  Gov- 
ernment, the  capitalists,  and  the  philanthrop- 
ists are  all  at  one  in  agreeing  with  the  working 
classes  that  we  can  never  return  to  the  old 
condition  of  things.  Everyone  feels  that 
better  housing,  better  wages,  better  education, 
shorter  hours  of  work,  and  a  larger  share  of 
amenities  and  amusements  are  the  right  of 
those  who  have  done  so  much  to  save  the 
Empire.  The  problem  is  an  extraordinarily 
difficult  one  and  needs  time,  knowledge,  and 
goodwill  for  its  solution;  but  an  answer  can 


I20  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

assuredly  be  found,  and  the  right  answer  is  not 
the  restriction  of  the  population,  but  a  more 
equitable  division  of  wealth,  and  of  all  those 
things  that  wealth  can  buy.  We  must  also 
remember  that  by  removng  the  natural  result 
of  sexual  intercourse,  those  who  advocate  the 
use  of  contraceptives  are  removing  one  of 
the  most  potent  safeguards  which  protect  the 
welfare  of  married  women,  and  that  while  they 
are  making  her  more  than  ever  subject  to  her 
husband's  desires,  they  are  to  a  great  extent 
robbing  her  of  her  power  to  be  mistress  of 
herself.  Further,  they  do  not  seem  to  realize 
the  probable  result  on  immarried  people  of 
diffusing  the  knowledge  of  the  use  of  contra- 
ceptives. Those  immarried  people  who  are 
not  protected  by  a  high  ideal  of  morality 
are  at  the  present  time  frequently  deterred 
from  wrong-doing  by  their  knowledge  of  the 
probable  consequences.  It  has  always  been 
held  that  women  are  the  superiors  of  men  in 
the  matter  of  sexual  morality;  we  have  no 
truth  of  this  belief.  In  regard  to  other 
shortcomings,    such    as    untruthfulness,    dis- 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  121 

honesty,  and  selfishness,  the  two  sexes  appear 
to  be  fairly  on  an  equality,  and  there  is  some 
reason  to  think  that  the  woman's  higher  stand- 
ard of  sexual  morality  is  very  largely  the 
product  of  her  age-long  fear  of  the  conse- 
quences of  immorality.  It  is  all  too  probable 
that  if  the  fear  of  bearing  illegitimate  children 
were  removed  women  as  a  whole  might  gradu- 
ally sink  to  the  level  of  men  in  the  matter  of 
sexual  purity.  Up  to  the  present  time  the  dual 
standard  has  prevailed,  and  sexual  dereliction 
on  the  part  of  the  man  has  always  been  con- 
sidered to  be  so  natural  and  so  common  as  to 
need  little  excuse  or  apology.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  woman  who  has  had  an  illegitimate 
'child  has  been  considered  to  be  so  degraded 
that  even  the  attempt  to  rescue  her  has  been  a 
forbidden  subject  in  polite  society.  Parents 
have  not  hesitated  to  give  their  daughters  in 
marriage  to  men  who  were  notorious  evil 
livers,  but  men  have  very  rightly  objected  to 
marrying  a  girl  who  was  known  to  have  made 
so  fatal  a  mistake.  It  is  quite  easy  to  under- 
stand how  this  state  of  things  came  about. 


122  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

The  maid,  or  wife,  who  had  an  illegitimate 
child  introduced  bastardy  and  visible  shame 
into  her  family,  and  although  in  these  latter 
days  we  are  lovingly  and  justly  endeavouring 
to  save  the  unmarried  mother  from  the  worst 
consequences  of  her  sin,  and  while  we  are 
endeavouring  to  secure  nurture  and  education 
for  the  much  sinned  against  offspring  of  ir- 
regular unions,  we  should  surely  also  endeav- 
our to  level  up  the  moral  standard  of  the  men, 
and  to  teach  society  that  there  can  be  but  one 
standard  for  both  sexes,  and  that  both  man 
and  woman  should  bring  to  their  espousals 
healthy  bodies  and  pure  minds. 

Very  great  efforts  are  being  made  to  effect 
this  object.  It  is  recognized  that  a  marriage 
between  a  healthy  and  a  diseased  individual 
must  not  be  tolerated.  It  looks  as  if  the  time 
was  near  when  bride  and  bridegroom  will  be 
required  to  exchange  certificates  of  health, 
and  this  will  probably  hasten  the  day  when 
prospective  brides  and  their  parents  will  be 
more  careful  than  they  are  at  present  that  both 
parties  to  the  union  shall  bear  an  unblemished 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  123 

reputation.  Girls  and  women  are  no  longer  so 
ignorant  and  so  helpless  as  they  were,  and  the 
teaching,  not  only  of  Christianity  but  of  eu- 
genics, patriotism,  and  enlightened  self-in- 
terest, will  lead  to  the  demand  from  both 
bridegroom  and  bride  that  the  prospective 
partner  shall  be  sound  and  untainted  in  mind 
and  body. 

All  these  legitimate  hopes  and  aspirations 
will  receive  a  very  serious  setback  if  the  new 
views  on  the  use  of  contraceptives  become  gen- 
eralized. The  philosophy  involved  in  the  limi- 
tation of  the  birth-rate  is  purely  materialistic; 
its  real  aim  and  object  is  to  secure  gratification 
without  incurring  responsibility:  it  tends  to  do 
away  with  the  protecting  and  chivalrous  love 
that  has  hitherto  distinguished  the  more 
thoughtful  and  considerate  of  husbands,  it 
tends  to  reduce  all  to  the  purely  animal  level, 
and  to  rob  the  imion  of  man  and  wife  of  its 
spiritual  significance. 

In  the  present  position  of  medical  knowledge 
it  is  not  possible  for  anyone  to  say  that  un- 
restricted sexual  intercourse  is  necessary  for 


124  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

the  health  of  any  individual.  God  in  His 
mercy  has  attached  feelings  of  pleasiire  and 
gratification  to  those  acts  whereby  individual 
and  racial  life  are  secured.  All  healthy  people 
enjoy  the  taking  of  the  food  that  is  essential 
to  their  well-being  and  to  the  continuance  of 
their  usefulness ;  and  the  person  who  does  not 
enjoy  food  and  has  not  a  healthy  appetite  is 
abnormal  and  should  consult  a  doctor.  In  the 
same  way,  in  the  great  majority  of  instances, 
the  act  which  is  necessary  for  the  continued 
life  of  the  race  is  pleasurable,  and  is  as  right 
and  as  natiu-al  as  is  a  good  appetite  for  food. 
Society  imites  in  condemning  excessive  delight 
in  the  pleastires  of  the  table;  those  who  are 
over-indulgent  to  themselves  in  the  matter  of 
food  or  drink  are  considered  to  be  outside  the 
pale  of  good  society,  while  the  law  of  the  land 
deals  with  those  who  steal  or  pilfer  in  order  to 
satisfy  the  desires  of  their  stomachs.  Appetite 
for  food  is  the  deepest  instinct  of  human 
nature,  and  next  to  it  in  power  and  in  depth  is 
the  instinctive  desire  between  the  sexes.  But 
here  again  gratification  of  instinct  must  be 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  125 

ruled  by  reason  and  by  opportunity.  The 
excessive  use  of  what  is  lawful  is  degrading 
and  a  wrong  to  the  offender's  own  nature,  and, 
as  in  the  case  of  dishonestly  acquired  food,  the 
sexual  gratification  that  is  secured  at  the  cost 
of  another  is  a  matter  that  brings  the  offender 
under  the  power  of  the  criminal  law.  No 
harm,  but  great  good,  is  done  by  the  careful 
regulation  of  human  appetites,  and  the  doctors 
of  today  agree  in  the  fact  that  self-control 
and  continence  injure  no  one. 

Evidence  on  this  point  is  clear  and  uncon- 
flicting.  The  medical  witnesses  called  before 
the  Birth-Rate  Commissions  were  unanimous 
in  their  statements  that  continence  before 
marriage,  and  chastity  and  moderation  after 
marriage,  are  not  only  consistent  with  perfect 
health  but  are  hygienic  and  desirable. 

It  is  also  necessary  to  consider  whether  the 
use  of  contraceptives  has  any  injurious  effect 
on  those  who  use  them,  and  whether  from  this 
point  of  view  there  is  not  some  reply  to  those 
who  advocate  their  use. 

A  long  professional  life  devoted  to  the  ser- 


126  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

vice  of  women  leads  me  to  the  conclusion  that 
contraceptive  practices  are  injurious  in  their 
effects  on  many  who  use  them.  These  injuries 
occur  almost  entirely  through  their  influence 
on  the  nervous  system.  Women  approaching, 
or  passing  through,  the  menopause  often  suffer 
from  a  noticeable  amoimt  of  nervous  worries. 
They  are  irritable,  depressed,  and  difficult;  in 
many  instances  they  sleep  badly  and  suffer 
from  headache.  Women  at  this  critical  period 
frequently  complain  of  vague  nervous  sensa- 
tions— such  as  numbness,  pins  and  needles, 
*' neuritis'*  (so  called),  and  other  unnatural 
sensations  which  lead  them  to  fear  the  onset  of 
paralysis. 

All  these  symptoms  are  not  essential  to  the 
menopause — ^they  are  exaggerations  or  distor- 
tions of  what  is  natural  to  the  change  of  life. 
The  young  girl  should  go  through  her  period  of 
evolution  comfortably  and  healthily.  So  the 
middle-aged  woman  should  go  through  her 
involution  without  imdue  creaking  and  jarring. 

The  yoimg  girl  who  has  been  over-indulged, 
and  whose  nervous  system  is  in  a  condition  of 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  127 

irritable  weakness,  will  suffer  unduly  during 
the  rapid  evolution  of  puberty.  Just  so  the 
elderly  woman  whose  nerves  have  been  injured 
by  excess  in  alcohol,  in  sexuality,  or  in  other 
ways,  will  fare  hardly  at  the  menopause. 

The  injury  inflicted  by  any  unnatural  habit 
is  deep  and  lasting — ^more  formidable  than  any 
local  lesion.  From  the  nature  of  the  case,  no 
absolute  demonstration  can  be  made,  but  the 
cumulative  evidence  derived  from  forty  years' 
experience  cannot  be  set  aside.  After  all,  such 
injury  is  paralleled  by  that  inflicted  on  the 
appetite  by  disregard  of  the  accustomed  hours 
of  meals.  The  individual  who  does  not  eat 
at  the  usual  time  will  find  that  when  he  lays 
aside  his  work  or  pleasure  and  sits  down  to 
table  he  has  lost  not  only  desire,  but  also  the 
power  of  digestion.  Other  examples  of  this 
law  of  nature  can  be  furnished.  Irregularity 
in  responding  to  the  calls  of  nature  leads  to 
perversion  of  the  nervous  impulses,  and  so  for 
instance  to  sleeplessness  and  to  constipation. 
If  people  wish  to  have  the  greatest  good;  if 
they  wish  to  reap  the  best  harvest  of  which 


128  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

their  natures  are  capable,  they  must  be  the 
wiUing,  intelhgent,  and  obedient  servants  of 
nature.  There  is  nothing  natural  about  the 
use  of  contraceptives:  they  are  all  intentional 
methods  of  contravening  nature.  Probably 
the  correct  rhythm  of  reproduction  in  the 
human  being  is  an  interval  of  about  two  years. 
If  we  had  not  become  over-sexed  by  imdue 
indulgence,  there  would  have  been  little  con- 
ception except  immediately  after  a  period, 
and  none  during  lactation.  The  remedy  lies  in 
the  direction  of  athleticism  and  self-control. 

Among  the  means  to  further  the  cause  of 
temperance  and  chastity  among  men  and 
women,  we  must  give  the  first  place  to  the 
sanctification  and  disciplining  of  human  natiire. 
Each  individual  is  a  trinity  in  unity,  and  the 
things  that  benefit  or  that  harm  any  one  part 
tend  to  benefit  or  to  harm  the  whole .  Chastity 
and  self-control  of  the  body  connotes  purity 
and  refinement  of  mind  and  the  elevation  and 
sanctification  of  the  soul.  It  is  not  for  nothing 
that  we  find  the  words  which  express  health 
and  holiness  belonging  to  the  same  root,  nor  is 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  129 

it  a  subject  for  astonishment  that  those  who 
are  insane  of  mind  are  frequently  degraded  in 
soul  and  imperfect  or  diseased  in  body.  Those 
who  know  anything  of  national  statistics  are 
aware  that  the  insane,  the  criminal,  and  the 
sexual  pervert  are  frequently  defective  both 
in  mind  and  body.  Conversely,  it  is  a  matter 
of  general  experience  that  the  environment 
and  education  which  tend  to  promote  healthi- 
ness and  soundness  of  mind  also  promote 
physical  well-being.  Therefore,  if  men  and 
women  wish  to  be  the  "masters  of  their  fate" 
and  ''captains  of  their  souls,"  they  must  en- 
deavour to  secure  their  physical  well-being 
by  moderation  in  all  things.  Among  the  con- 
quests to  be  won  over  the  lower  nature  is  the 
disciplining  of  the  desires;  and  among  the 
natural  desires,  the  two  that  give  the  most 
trouble,  and  also  which  react  most  upon  each 
other,  are  the  love  of  strong  drink  and  sexual 
desire. 

The  evidence  given  before  the  Royal  Com- 
mission on  Venereal  Diseases  showed  that  the 
act  to  which  infection  with  these  diseases  is 


130  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

generally  due  was  committed  in  some  90  per 
cent,  of  the  cases  while  the  individual  was 
imder  the  influence  of  alcohol.  Not  that  he  or 
she  was  necessarily  drunk,  but  that  alcohol 
enough  had  been  taken  to  silence  conscience 
and  to  cloud  the  judgment.  In  like  manner, 
much  of  the  excessive  sexuality  and  gross 
materialism  that  conspire  to  cause  over-fre- 
quent demands  upon  a  partner's  generosity 
have  their  origin  in  the  same  deterioration  of 
moral  control.  There  is  reason  to  hope  that 
our.  coimtry  will  not  again  descend  to  the  level 
of  excessive  alcoholism  which  disgraced  it 
before  the  war.  During  the  war  the  Central 
Control  Board  (Liquor  Traffic),  imder  the 
guidance  of  Lord  D' Abemon  and  his  colleagues, 
secured  a  very  marked  improvement  in  the 
incidence  of  alcoholism.  Convictions  for 
dnmkenness  both  among  men  and  women 
diminished  wonderfully;  so,  too,  did  certain 
other  consequences  of  alcoholism,  such  as 
deaths  from  deliriimi  tremens,  deaths  from 
cirrhosis  of  the  liver,  and  cases  of  the  suffoca- 
tion of  infants.    These  benefits  were  secured 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  131 

partly  by  closing  a  considerable  number  of 
superfluous  public-houses,  but  also  by  the 
measures  which  prevented  drinking  in  the 
early  morning  and  late  at  night,  and  which 
practically  limited  the  hours  of  sale  to  the 
times  of  the  two  principal  meals.  Thus  was 
prevented  the  terrible  consequences  of  con- 
tinuous ** soaking,'*  and  also  of  the  early 
morning  dram  on  an  empty  stomach.  If  the 
legislation  which  is  now  proposed  is  capable  of 
continuing  this  national  benefit,  we  may  look 
for  a  steady  increase,  not  only  in  efficiency  and 
bodily  health,  but  also  pari  passu  of  economic 
ease  and  of  self-control.  One  of  the  conse- 
quences of  this  increased  sobriety  would  be  a 
diminution  in  the  birth  of  illegitimate  children, 
and  also  a  more  rational  and  considerate 
exercise  of  the  rights  of  married  men  and 
women.  Up  to  the  outbreak  of  war,  it  is  to  be 
feared  that  the  lives  of  millions  of  our  fellow- 
citizens  consisted  in  long  hours  of  badly  paid 
work,  of  insufficient  and  badly  cooked  food, 
and  of  the  deep  sleep  of  utter  exhaustion.  In 
such  lives  there  was  scarcely  any  hope  of  de- 


132  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

veloping  self-control,  and  in  too  many  in- 
stances, the  unfortunate  couple  came  perilously 
near  to  the  absence  of  rational  pleasures  and 
of  being  driven  into  so  degraded  a  position 
that  their  appetites  and  desires  were  scarcely 
distinguishable  from  those  of  the  lower  orders 
of  creation. 

All  people  who  have  studied  adolescents  and 
young  adults  agree  that  the  years  of  maximum 
temptation  to  sexual  excess  are  those  when  the 
body  is  strongest,  the  passions  are  most  vivid, 
and  the  power  of  self-control  is  weakest.  Pro- 
bably few  men  and  few  women  become  alcohol- 
ics or  begin  a  career  of  unbridled  sexuality  after 
the  age  of  thirty.  Something,  then,  ought  to 
be  done  to  help  the  young  members  of  the 
commtinity  to  withstand  their  great  tempta- 
tions. Much  has  been  done  and  still  more 
remains  to  do.  As  was  pointed  out  above,  the 
problem  of  temperance  so  far  as  alcohol  is 
concerned  was  never  before  presented  in  so 
hopeful  a  manner  as  it  is  now,  and  it  seems 
likely  that  this  temptation  at  any  rate  will  be 
lessened  and  made  more  bearable  in  the  im- 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  133 

mediate  future.  There  is  also  an  awakened 
conscience  and  a  clearer  insight  in  those  who 
control  the  destinies  of  the  nation,  and  in  those 
who  love  their  fellow-men.  There  is  definite 
hope  that  the  important  and  difficult  question 
of  the  better  housing  of  the  people  is  already 
imdergoing  solution,  that  fair  wages  and  rea- 
sonable hours  of  work  will  be  not  only  claimed, 
but  conceded  and  secured,  and  that  in  conse- 
quence the  young  men  of  the  working  classes, 
the  young  husbands  and  potential  fathers  of 
the  immediate  future,  will  be  helped  to  attain 
to  a  higher  level  of  manhood  and  of  chastity 
by  a  diversion  of  their  desires  to  other  objects 
than  drink  and  women.  When  our  lads  play 
cricket  and  football  heartily  themselves,  in- 
stead of  merely  looking  on,  a  great  step 
towards  the  attainment  of  public  morality 
will  have  been  made.  Athletic  exercises  of  all 
sorts,  the  provision  of  public  swimming-baths 
and  washhouses,  the  provision  of  drill  halls, 
institutes  for  Swedish  exercises,  and  (perhaps 
as  important  as  any  of  these  means)  tea  gar- 
dens, good  and  elevating  cinemas  and  dramatic 


134  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

representations,  will  tend  to  the  purification  of 
the  mind  and  to  the  satisfactory  development 
of  the  body,  the  lack  of  which  development 
constantly  leads  to  moral  disaster. 

If  these  and  other  similar  methods  of  edu- 
cation and  amusement  were  provided,  sexuality 
would  naturally  take  its  proper  place,  and 
its  proper  place  only,  in  the  life  of  each  in- 
dividual. The  instinct  is  too  deeply  rooted 
for  there  to  be  any  fear  that  it  would  diminish 
unduly,  but  improved  social  status,  improved 
bodily  health,  and  the  competition  of  other 
forms  of  pleasure  and  enjoyment  would  reduce 
it  to  its  proper  influence,  and  its  proper  in- 
fluence only. 

A  woman  living  imder  physiological  condi- 
tions would  probably  have  a  child  about  once 
in  two  years — nine  months'  lactation,  six 
months'  holiday,  and  nine  months'  pregnancy 
would  prevent  a  woman  from  the  very  undue 
strain  of  bearing  a  child  once  a  year.  If 
married  life  began  about  the  age  of  twenty,  the 
young  woman's  fertility  would  be  at  its  height, 
and  it  would  generally  have  begun  to  diminish 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  135 

by  the  time  she  had  borne  five  or  six  children. 
A  family  of  this  size  would  be  none  too  big  for 
the  necessities  of  the  Empire.  Two  children 
might  be  taken  as  representing  the  father  and 
mother  in  the  home  population,  while  three  or 
four  would  not  be  too  large  a  contribution 
towards  the  adequate  population  of  the 
Britains  Overseas.  It  may  be  true  that  Eng- 
land is  already  sufficiently  populated,  but  the 
same  cannot  be  said  of  the  outlying  parts  of 
the  Empire,  some  of  the  fairest  parts  of  which 
are  so  sparsely  populated  that  they  offer 
almost  overwhelming  temptations  to  their 
neighbours. 

We  must  also  remember  that  for  many  years 
to  come,  every  potential  husband  and  father, 
every  living  and  healthy  child,  is  a  valuable 
national  asset.  We  have  lost  most  of  the 
yoimg  men  who  ought  to  have  been  the  fathers 
of  the  next  ten  or  fifteen  years.  Mercifully,  the 
reproductive  period  of  men  is  not  so  limited 
as  is  that  of  women;  if  it  were,  the  position  of 
our  population  would  be  hopeless.  But  even 
as  it  is,  every  effort  should  be  made  to  assist 


136  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

the  working  population,  and  perhaps  even 
more  those  members  of  the  community  who 
are  well  educated  and  have  a  real  stake  in  the 
coimtry,  but  whose  small  fixed  incomes  make 
their  real  economic  position  worse  than  is  that 
of  the  labouring  classes. 

Graduated  remissions  of  income-tax,  the  en- 
dowment of  mothers  and  of  children  up  to  the 
age  of  fourteen,  the  provision  of  a  real  living 
wage,  and  the  steady  encouragement  of  all 
classes  to  work  hard  and  to  increase  our  ex- 
ports, are  amongst  the  means  that  may  be 
taken  to  solve  the  problem  of  the  birth-rate. 

While  doing  all  in  our  power  to  render  the 
lives  of  our  people  holy,  happy,  and  healthy; 
while  endeavouring  to  afford  a  better  answer 
to  the  question  than  is  given  by  those  who  pro- 
pose the  use  of  contraceptives  and  the  limita- 
tion of  families,  we  must  not  forget  the  twin 
problem  of  infant  mortality.  It  is  useless  for 
women  to  imdergo  the  inconveniences  and 
trials  of  pregnancy  and  the  pains  and  perils  of 
child-birth  if  the  infant  population  is  to  die 
at  an  average  rate  of  one  in  eight  during  the 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  137 

first  year  of  life.  From  the  experience  of  some 
parts  of  the  British  Isles,  and  from  the  ex- 
perience of  New  Zealand  where  the  rate  of 
infant  mortality  scarcely  exceeds  thirty  in  the 
thousand,  it  is  evident  that  the  present  average 
of  infant  mortality  is  tmnecessarily  high,  and 
that  if  all  were  done  that  could  and  should  be 
done  to  secure  that  children  are  bom  healthy, 
and  that  they  are  properly  fed,  warmed,  and 
clothed  during  infancy,  a  greater  part  of  our 
harvest  of  babies  wovild  be  saved. 


II 

By  Rev.  F.  B.  Meyer,  D.D. 

To  determine  the  relations  of  Man  and  Woman 
in  the  most  intimate  privacies  of  life  is  by  no 
means  easy — the  more  so  as  the  ideal  and  the 
conventional  are  more  sharply  divided  here 
than  on  almost  every  other  subject,  and 
because  no  one  has  the  right  to  entail  on  his 
fellows  burdens  which  neither  he  nor  they  are 
able  to  bear. 

The  relation  of  the  sexes  is  the  most  im- 
portant consideration  imder  the  sim,  affecting 
as  it  does,  not  homes  and  families  alone,  but 
nations,  races,  and  civilization.  It  is  integral 
to  hviman  well-being.  Probably  it  is  related 
to  mysterious  unities  and  affinities,  of  which 
we  are  but  dimly  conscious,  but  which  govern 
earthly  attractions  and  repulsions,  as  mag- 
netic disturbances  the  ebb  and  flow  of  ocean* 
tides.  ^ 

138 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  139 

The  interactions  of  sex  begin  in  the  abandon 
of  the  nursery.  Before  the  piire  veiled  eyes 
of  brothers  and  sisters  the  first  letters  in  the 
great  alphabet  of  life  are  taught.  Hence  on 
the  one  hand  the  immense  loss  and  deprivation 
of  the  only  child,  and  on  the  other  the  immense 
gain  of  the  large  family,  especially  where  the 
elder  sister  mothers  the  tiny  brother,  and 
Mother  Nature  in  her  inimitable  manner  im- 
veils  mysteries  before  prurient  curiosity  has 
awakened  to  set  itself  on  its  secret  quest.  It  is 
a  happy  lot  when  a  large  family,  of  different 
ages,  grow  naturally  and  simply  under  the 
careful  and  wise  tendance  of  parental  nurture. 

In  after  years  the  relation  of  brother  and 
sister  has  often  tended  to  become  idyllic,  and 
many  a  man  has  found  in  his  sister  the  comple- 
ment of  his  own  moral  and  intellectual  existence, 
and  has  felt  no  need  of  other  womanhood 
than  her  pure  and  gifted  nature  supplied. 

It  is  not  to  our  present  purpose  here  to  dwell 
on  the  elective  affinity  that  should  draw  to- 
gether this  man  and  this  woman  into  the 
marriage  union,  which  in  immortal  words  is 


140  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

compared  to  the  setting  of  perfect  music  to 
noble  words.  Suffice  it  only  to  say  that  what 
begins  merely  in  the  physical  is  like  enough  to 
end  in  disappointment  and  rupture,  and  that 
the  true  relationship  is  the  mating  of  spirit 
with  spirit,  of  mind  with  mind,  of  heart  with 
heart,  in  such  idealizing  each  of  other  that  the 
body  of  either  is  reverenced  as  a  holy  thing, 
not  to  be  desecrated,  as  Pompey  desecrated 
the  white  marble  of  the  Temple  when  he 
sacrificed  a  sow  within  its  precincts.  Where 
there  is  true  love,  which  is  the  coalescing  of 
souls,  an  idealizing  halo,  which  is  akin  to  wor- 
ship, is  flung  around  the  object  of  affection, 
and  arrests  the  intrusion  of  animal  passion  or 
lust  on  the  threshold  of  the  soul. 

Since  this  is  not  a  manual  on  the  stages 
which  precede  and  lead  up  to  the  marital  act, 
it  is  beyond  our  province  to  urge  that  on  either 
side  in  the  marriage-contract  there  should  be 
assured  good  health,  that  each  should  be  ac- 
quainted with  the  nature  of  the  marriage-act, 
and  that  some  interval  shotdd  be  allowed  to 
elapse  between  the  exhausting  experiences  of 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  141 

the  preparations  and  festivities  and  the  con- 
summation of  the  marriage  itself.  Attention 
to  these  three  partictilars  will  have  not  a  little 
effect  in  the  many  questions  which  will  arise 
from  the  new  and  vital  relationship  of  the 
newly  married  pair. 

We  proceed,  therefore,  to  enunciate — ^with 
all  reverence  and  purity  of  intention — the 
following  propositions: — 

I .  That  the  wife  must  be  a  consenting  party. 
She  is  not  a  slave  or  a  chattel.  Her  body  is  her 
own,  and  she  has  the  right  to  refuse  as  well  as 
to  grant.  In  an  authoritative  Jewish  memo- 
randum on  this  subject,  the  following  state- 
ment is  made:  ''Though  conjugal  rights  are  a 
husband's  duty  (Exodus  xxi.  10),  the  wife's 
consent  is  at  all  times  an  indispensable  pre- 
requisite. The  exercise  of  such  rights  is  dis- 
cotmtenanced  in  a  state  of  alcoholism,  and  in 
times  of  individual  or  social  psychic  depression. 
But  tmreasonable  and  prolonged  denial  on  the 
part  of  either  husband  or  wife  entitles  the 
other  to  divorce."  A  similar  memorandum 
from  an  influential  member  of  the  Roman 


142  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

Catholic  Church  discusses  the  several  occa- 
sions in  which  a  wife  is  freed  from  the  obliga- 
tions to  render  the  rights  of  marriage.  For 
instance,  the  tise  of  marriage  is  forfeited  by 
either  party  committing  adultery.  In  this 
case  the  innocent  party  may  refuse  intercourse, 
but  may  ultimately  pardon  and  condone  the 
offence.  "Under  the  above  heads/*  the 
memorandum  continues,  ''may  be  included 
dnmkenness,  especially  on  the  part  of  the 
husband,  when  demanding  the  rights  of  mar- 
riage, also  the  risk  of  contracting  contagious 
and  infectious  disease,  and  when  very  grave 
injury  is  likely,  in  the  opinion  of  medical 
advisers,  to  result  from  child-birth."  In  a 
memorandtim  prepared  by  a  Committee  of 
Bishops  of  the  Anglican  Church,  the  same 
rights  are  implied,  though  not  so  explicitly 
expressed,  in  the  following:  "We  think  it 
sufficient  to  say  that  women  should  do  all  in 
their  power  to  make  and  keep  marriage  whole- 
some, natural,  and  chaste,  and  to  reinforce,  by 
their  own  ever-stronger  and  finer  instinct,  the 
resistance  to   the  misuse   of   marriage;   nor 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  143 

should  they  shrink  from  the  heavy  burdens 
which  marriage  may  entail  upon  them."  A 
distinguished  Free  Churchman  states  the 
matter  thus :  ' '  The  performance  of  the  marital 
act  at  any  time  should  be  at  the  will  of  the 
woman  as  well  as  of  the  man." 

It  is  probable  that  man's  failure  to  observe 
the  rights  of  woman  in  this  respect  has,  to  a 
large  extent,  led  to  that  revolt  against  mar- 
riage which  has  characterized  the  intellectual 
women  of  our  age.  They  argue  that  it  is  im- 
reasonable  to  secure  the  unmarried  against 
rape,  but  to  expose  a  woman,  apart  from  her 
consent,  to  the  licence  of  her  husband's  passion. 
The  gravity  and  wisdom  of  Jeremy  Taylor's 
dictimi  cannot  be  challenged  when  he  says: 
**In  their  permissions  and  licence  the  husband 
and  wife  must  be  sure  to  observe  the  order  of 
nature  and  the  ends  of  God.  He  is  an  ill 
husband  that  uses  his  wife  as  a  man  treats  an 
harlot,  having  no  other  end  but  pleasure." 
At  the  same  time,  we  cannot  go  to  the  length 
of  a  vigorous  defender  of  woman's  rights,  when 
she  says:    ''If   a  husband   cannot   properly 


144  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

control  his  amorous  propensities,  he  and  his 
wife  had  better  by  all  means  occupy  separate 
beds  and  different  apartments,  with  a  lock  on 
the  communicating  door,  the  key  in  the  wife's 
possession."  In  practice  such  action  would 
go  far  to  destroy  the  mutual  confidence  and 
love  which  are  the  foundation  of  a  happy 
married  life.  Directly  man  and  wife  have  to 
turn  the  key  on  one  another,  the  married-altar 
has  cnmibled  into  decay  and  they  are  bound 
by  the  iron  mandates  of  the  law  instead  of  the 
tender  ties  of  a  uniting  affection.  Respect  for 
each  other's  rights  is  the  foundation  of  married 
love.  Where  this  is  present,  the  husband  will 
not  demand  what  the  wife  cannot  concede,  and 
the  wife  will  go  to  the  furthest  lengths  of  con- 
cession for  the  sake  of  the  man  whom  she 
respects  and  loves. 

Throughout  the  entire  animal  creation,  the 
condition  of  the  female  always  determines 
the  approaches  of  her  mate.  Though  he  is  the 
more  aggressive,  yet  he  is  debarred  from  forc- 
ing himself  on  the  female  without  her  acquies- 
cence.   It  is  only  when  she  is  in  a  condition  to 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  145 

conceive  that  she  will  welcome  the  advances 
of  her  partner.  And  though  the  analogy  may 
not  be  pressed  to  its  full  extent,  because  with 
the  human  there  is  the  substitution  of  intelli- 
gence and  moral  choice  for  the  working  of 
blind  instinct,  yet  this  fact  may  at  least  be 
adduced  to  support  our  contention,  that  the 
wife  is  mistress  of  her  own  body,  and  that  a 
husband  will  reverence  his  wife  sufficiently  to 
refrain  from  forcing  upon  her  exactions  which 
offend  her  modesty,  and  lessen  their  mutual 
confidence  and  respect. 

2.  Though  the  procreation  of  children  is  the 
normal  result  of  the  marriage-act,  it  must  not 
be  considered  to  be  its  sole  and  exclusive  pur- 
pose. Nature  is  careful  to  preserve  the  con- 
tinuity of  life.  The  myriads  of  seeds  that  are 
never  fructified  in  vegetable  and  animal  life, 
bear  witness  to  the  care  with  which  the  decline 
or  extinction  of  any  species  is  resisted  in  the 
heaving  matrix  of  existence.  And  in  the 
higher  races  of  mammals,  and  especially  of 
man,  extraordinary  precautions  are  exerted  to 
propagate  the  race .    "Be  fruitful  and  multiply 


146  THE  CONTROL  OP  PARENTHOOD 

and  replenish  the  earth"  is  an  injunction  that 
Nature  never  for  a  moment  forgets.  And  as  a 
chief  means  to  the  attainment  of  this  restilt, 
the  sense  of  keen  pleasure  is  associated  with 
the  act  of  generation.  This  is  the  invariable 
inducement  held  out  to  the  production  and 
maintenance  of  life.  The  attractiveness  of 
succulent  fruit  which  appeals  to  the  appetite; 
the  luxury  of  sleep  stealing  over  the  wearied 
limbs;  the  ecstasy  of  the  touch  of  love;  the 
pleasure  of  exercise — these  are  samples  of  the 
method  by  which  we  are  cajoled  into  doing  what 
we  must  do,  to  maintain  vitality  and  health. 
The  witchery  of  sensation  is  constantly  alluring 
us  to  actions  which  we  might  forget  through  in- 
attention or  evade  through  lethargy .  The  keen 
gratification  of  the  sex  appetite  is  thus  a  per- 
petual incentive  to  the  fecundity  of  the  race. 

In  the  memorandimis  already  alluded  to  pro- 
creation is  always  placed  as  the  first  purpose. 

The  Roman  Catholic  programme  is: 

I.  The  procreation  and  bringing  up  of 
children. 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  147 

2.  Mutual  assistance  in  life. 

3.  The  restraint  of  concupiscence. 

The  Anglican  Church  is: 

1 .  The  procreation  of  children. 

2.  The  avoidance  of  sin. 

3.  The  mutual  help  and  comfort  which 

husband  and  wife  may  render  the 
one  to  the  other. 

The  Jewish  is: 

1.  Procreation. 

2.  Life-companionship. 

3.  The  education  of  children.    ' 

This  preponderance  of  affirmation  that  the  first 
aim  and  purpose  of  marriage  is  the  procrea- 
tion of  children  is  so  overwhelming  that  one's 
individual  expression  of  opinion  seems  impertin- 
ent, and  yet  one's  opinion  is  wholly  recusant. 
The  desire  for  children  has,  without  doubt,  its 
large  place,  especially  in  a  woman's  heart  as 
she  contemplates  matrimony;  but  in  an  im- 
mense proportion  of  cases  the  marriage  imion 
is  the  consummation  in  the  physical  sphere  of 


148  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

an  affinity,  a  knitting  together,  of  souls,  which 
has  been  realized  for  months  or  years  before. 
It  is  the  outward  and  visible  sign,  symbol,  or 
sacrament  of  an  inward  psychical  attraction. 
Conception  may  ensue,  a  new  life  may  be 
generated,  ultimately  a  child  may  be  bom,  but 
all  this  is  incidental  to  the  elective  affinity  of 
two  souls. 

It  may  be  argued  that  this  is  the  ideal  of 
true  wedlock.  But  even  so,  it  is  only  as  we 
study  the  marriage-relation  in  its  transcen- 
dental form  that  we  are  able  to  discover  its 
fundamental  law.  And  to  the  argimient  that 
the  principal  incentive  towards  marriage  arises 
from  the  craving  of  passion,  at  least  in  the 
case  of  men,  and  that  this,  rather  than  an  elec- 
tive affinity,  is  the  inciting  purpose,  it  may  be 
replied  that  this  at  least  supports  the  present 
contention  that  the  procreation  of  children 
cannot  be  considered  as  the  sole  and  exclusive 
purpose  of  the  marriage-relationship. 

In  a  remarkable  passage,  the  words  of  the 
Apostle  confirm  this  contention.  ''Let  the 
husband  render  imto  the  wife  due  benevolence: 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  149 

and  likewise  also  the  wife  unto  the  husband." 
There  can  be  but  one  interpretation  of  these 
words.  Surely  their  obvious  significance  is  the 
true  one,  that  the  marriage-act  may  be  inter- 
mitted for  a  special  purpose  and  for  a  given 
time,  but  it  shall  be  resumed,  not  specially  for 
the  purposes  of  procreation,  but  for  the  ex- 
pression of  mutual  love,  and  for  the  joint 
enabling  of  each  other  more  successfully  to 
combat  the  temptations  to  impurity,  which 
were  specially  rife  in  the  semi-oriental  at- 
mosphere of  Corinth,  as  in  modern  cities. 

Obviously  it  must  be  inferred  that  the  posi- 
tion which  we  are  maintaining  warrants  an 
tindue  licence  in  the  marriage-relationship. 
So  far  from  that,  the  mutual  love  of  husband 
and  wife  will  be  on  the  outlook  for  any  sign 
that  the  undue  excitement  of  the  sex-organs  is 
inducing  fretfulness,  exhaustion,  or  nervous 
depression  in  either.  If  this  were  induced,  it 
would  alienate  rather  than  induce  conjugal 
love,  which  is  highly  sensitive  to  whatever 
woiild  disturb  the  mental  or  physical  tone. 

What  may  seem  moderation  to  the  husband 


I50  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

may  be  most  immoderate  and  hurtful  to  the 
wife,  or  the  reverse  may  be  the  case.  The  law 
for  each  is  to  consider  the  other,  and  to  temper 
indulgence  so  as  to  attain  the  best  possible 
results  of  health  and  happiness  for  both.  We 
are  all  familiar  with  the  necessity  of  governing 
our  senses  in  other  directions,  and  we  should 
hold  the  appetite  of  sex  imder  the  same  control 
as  that  of  hunger  or  thirst  or  sleep.  Some 
physicians  are  inclined  to  limit  the  relation  to 
once  a  month.  It  is  generally  admitted  by 
those  who  have  studied  the  subject  from  a 
physiological  standpoint  that  no  man  of  aver- 
age physical,  nervous,  and  intellectual  vigour 
can  exceed  the  limits  of  once  a  week  without  a 
danger  of  imperilling  personal  well-being  and 
conjugal  felicity. 

Before  we  pass  from  this  particular,  it  may 
be  well  to  notice  that  the  fact  that  there  is  one 
common  act,  which  is  sacred  between  husband 
and  wife,  and  in  which  no  man  other  than  the 
husband,  and  no  woman  other  than  the  wife, 
has  any  right  to  participate,  is  a  perpetual  re- 
minder of  the  unique  relationship  between 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  151 

» 
them.    A  man  may  have  many  acquaintances 

among  women,  but  none  may  dare  to  enter  the 
sacred  enclosure  in  which  the  one  woman 
stands,  whom  he  calls  Wife,  A  woman  may 
be  the  friend  of  many  men,  who  are  attracted 
by  her  intellect  and  accomplishments,  but 
when  they  have  all  departed,  there  is  the  one 
man  of  all,  who  has  the  right  of  an  intimacy 
which  is  forbidden  to  all  else.  And  this  is  the 
characteristic  function  of  the  act  of  marriage, 
quite  apart  from  the  raising  of  a  family  of 
boys  and  girls. 

Therefore  we  cannot  hold  the  view  of  those 
who  insist  that  the  only  thing  which  ultimately 
justifies  the  intercourse  between  man  and 
woman  is  the  purpose  and  desire  to  have 
children,  and  that  the  whole  conception  of  the 
marriage-relationship  is  lowered,  unless  it  is 
intended  to  promote  the  production  of  children. 
We  honour  the  personal  character  and  high 
ideals  of  such  persons,  but  their  view  seems 
inconsistent  with  the  line  of  argument  ad- 
vanced above,  and  presents  to  all  but  a  few 
an  impossible  ideal,   as  it  would  limit  the 


152  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

marriage-act  to  five  or  six  times  in  the  entire 
course  of  married  life. 

3.  Whatever  is  unnatural  in  the  marriage- 
act  is  to  be  condemned  on  moral  and  physical 
groimds.  That  these  methods  are  widely- 
practised  may  be  confidently  inferred  from  the 
continued  fall  of  the  birth-rate.  In  1881  for 
England  and  Wales  it  was  33.9  per  thousand; 
in  191 1  it  had  dropped  to  24.4.  ''Whilst  the 
number  of  marriages  is  steadily  increasing, 
the  average  f ruitf  ulness  of  marriages  is  greatly 
decreasing,  and  that  this  decrease  is  very 
largely  due  to  the  deliberate  restriction  of  the 
procreation  of  children  in  married  life  is  at- 
tested by  its  concurrence  with  the  sale  of  drugs 
and  instruments  for  this  purpose.**  (Quoted 
from  a  memorandimi  drawn  up  by  a  Com- 
mittee of  Bishops  of  the  Anglican  Church.) 

These  practices  are  strongly  condemned 
by  some  members  of  the  Medical  Faculty. 

Nature  herself  condemns  these  practices; 
and  the  people  who  have  practised  them  are 
compelled  to  admit,  with  the  findings  of  the 
Bishops'  Committee,  that  such  married  life 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  153 

as  has  been  subjected  to  these  methods  has 
always  proved  to  be  desolate  and  disappoint- 
ing. To  those  who  obey  her,  Nature  distri- 
butes her  rarest  gifts  with  prodigal  generosity, 
but  she  chastises  with  a  whip  of  scorpions  all 
who  ruthlessly  offend  against  her  conventions. 
The  falling  of  the  womb,  nervous  depression, 
loss  of  memory,  even  the  asylum,  are  among 
her  penalties.  But  the  sacrifice  of  modesty;  of 
self-respect,  of  mutual  respect,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  clear  upward  gaze  of  the  pure  soul,  are  still 
a  heavier  infliction  to  all  right-minded  people. 

It  is  here  that  the  question  of  the  growth  of 
the  family  demands  attention.  The  health 
and  strength  of  the  wife  may  be  tmequal  to 
the  bearing  of  more  children,  or  of  any.  It 
may  be  impossible  to  obtain  the  necessary 
house-accommodation  for  the  decent  up- 
bringing of  a  large  number  of  children.  The 
question  of  the  means  of  education  may  also 
arise.  These  and  similar  circumstances  may 
make  it  necessary  for  parents  to  consider  very 
seriously  if  they  may  not  legitimately  restrict 
the  growth  of  the  family. 


154  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

It  is  highly  probable,  however,  that  this 
question  would  arise  less  frequently  if  the  atten- 
tion of  young  married  people  was  drawn  to  the 
prescriptions  of  that  ancient  sanitary  code  laid 
down  by  Moses  for  the  observance  of  the 
Hebrew  race.  In  Leviticus  xv. ,  19,  it  is  enacted 
that  the  woman  should  be  entirely  separated 
during  her  periodic  sickness,  and  when  this 
had  passed,  she  must  number  to  herself  seven 
additional  days,  after  which,  on  the  eighth 
day,  she  appeared  before  the  priest  with  her 
offerings,  and  was  declared  to  be  clean.  The 
evident  object  of  this  provision  was  that  the 
number  of  children  should  be  limited,  and 
the  very  best  type  of  human  life  transmitted. 
It  is  also  a  rare  phenomenon  for  a  woman  to 
become  pregnant  during  lactation.  In  one 
quarter  it  has  been  suggested  that  two  years 
is  the  proper  interval  between  the  births  of 
children — consisting  of  nine  months  of  gesta- 
tion, nine  months  of  lactation,  and  six  to  nine 
months'  rest;  but  even  if  the  latter  of  these 
were  dropped,  the  suckling  of  the  babe  would 
not  only  greatly  tend  to  the  child's  health  and 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  155 

the  influence  of  the  mother's  nature  over  that 
of  her  offspring,  but  would  secure  lor  the 
mother  a  further  opportimity  of  recovering 
her  strength. 

But  if  still  the  necessity  of  restricting  a 
woman  from  further  child-bearing  were  cla- 
mant, there  is  one  natiu'al  method  which  may 
be  adopted,  and  which  is  held  to  be  permissible 
by  the  leaders  of  religious  thought — ^namely, 
the  limitation  of  intercourse  to  the  middle 
period  between  the  close  and  the  commence- 
ment of  the  periodic  sickness.  This  is  tech- 
nically known  as  the  inter-menstrual  period. 
''There  is  no  doubt,  **  says  Dr.  Schofield  before 
the  Commission  previously  referred  to,  ''that 
the  majority  of  women  conceive  either  just 
before  or  just  after  the  monthly  period."  The 
memorandtim  prepared  by  the  Committee  of 
Bishops  contains  this  extremely  important 
statement: /'It  seems  to  most  of  us  only  a 
legitimate  application  of  Christian  self-re- 
straint, that  in  certain  cases  (which  only  the 
parties*  own  judgment  and  conscience  can 
settle)   intercourse  should  be  restricted   by 


156  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

consent  to  certain  times  at  which  it  is  not 
likely  to  lead  to  conception.  This  is  only  under 
certain  conditions;  it  is  approved  by  good 
medical  authority;  it  means  self-denial  and 
not  self-indulgence.  And  we  believe  it  to  be 
quite  legitimate,  or  at  least  not  to  be  con- 
demned/* 

The  Roman  Catholic  memorandimi  agrees 
so  far  as  to  say:  *' Where  all  other  deterrents 
fail,  married  couples  may  be  allowed  to  limit 
intercourse  to  the  inter-menstrual  period,  some- 
times called  Tempus  ageneseas.  But  this 
limited  use  of  marriage  is  not  to  be  put  for- 
ward as  a  perfectly  safe  means  of  avoiding 
procreation." 

4.  Cohabitation  during  pregnancy  is  per- 
missible, though  considered  by  many  to  be 
inadvisable;  but  the  periods  when  the  monthly 
sickness  would  fall  due  should  in  any  case  be 
avoided.  In  the  evidence  before  the  Com- 
mission, Dr.  Fremantle  said:  ''There  is  no 
necessity  whatever  to  abstain  during  gesta- 
tion and  lactation — ^no  reason  whatever.*' 

It  must  be  confessed,  however,  that  there 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  157 

is  considerable  difference  of  opinion  on  the 
effect  of  the  marital  act,  during  pregnancy,  on 
the  mother,  whose  sexual  sense  has  become 
quiescent,  and  on  the  unborn  child.  It  is 
stated  for  instance  that  the  effect  of  sexual 
indulgence  at  that  time  is  likely  to  develop 
abnormally  the  sexual  instinct  in  the  child, 
and  that  herein  is  to  be  f  oimd  the  key  to  much 
of  the  sexual  precocity  and  depravity  which 
ctirse  humanity.  Clearly  this  is  a  matter 
which  must  be  left  to  each  man's  judgment 
and  conscience;  and,  in  the  absence  of  any 
determining  reason,  the  position  defined  above 
may  be  generally  accepted.  But  where  direc- 
tion and  advice  on  this  and  other  matters  may 
be  needed,  recourse  should  be  had  to  some  medi- 
cal men  of  high  standing  and  character. 

It  should  be  generally  imderstood  that  a 
woman  is  not  to  be  held  responsible  for  the 
tmdesirable  methods  that  may  be  adopted  by 
the  husband  to  prevent  child-birth,  if  she  has 
remonstrated  with  him;  nor  does  such  conduct 
on  his  part  warrant  her  in  withholding  the 
rights  of  marriage. 


Ill 

By  Rev.  Alfred  E.  Gar  vie,  M.A.,  D.D., 

Principal  of  New  College,  London 

( I )  This  essay  is  written  from  the  standpoint 
of  Christian  ethical  monotheism,  and  is  an 
attempt  to  apply  its  idea  of  God  and  its  ideal 
of  man  to  the  solution  of  the  problem  of  the 
functions,  obligations,  and  privileges  of  parent- 
hood. Amid  many  other  voices  this  voice  has 
a  claim  to  be  heard.  The  fundamental  prin- 
ciples of  the  discussion  are  the  following:  God 
is  mighty,  wise,  holy,  and  loving,  the  Creator, 
Preserver,  and  Ruler  of  all.  Man  is  made  for 
God's  likeness  and  fellowship.  In  Christ,  God 
is  revealed  as  Father,  and  men  are  redeemed 
from  sin  to  be  the  sons  of  God.  Evolution  is 
the  method  of  the  creation,  which  is  consimi- 
mated  in  man,  and  of  the  re-creation  by  the 
Spirit  of  God,  of  man,  whose  nature  has  been 
marred  by  sin.    While  there  is  a  continuity  of 

158 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS    159 

purpose  the  process  is  not,  as  far  as  we  now 
know  it,  continuous;  but  there  are  distinct 
stages  in  a  progress  of  which  the  lower  stages 
do  not  explain  the  higher. 

The  transitions  from  the  non-living  to  the 
living,  from  the  unconscious  to  the  conscious  is 
unthinkable.  While  matter  is  not  the  efficient 
cause  of  mind,  mind  is  the  final  cause  of  matter. 
So  far  as  this  movement  discloses  its  goal,  it 
is  rational,  moral  and  spiritual  personality, 
developing  into  fuller  likeness  to  God,  and 
closer  fellowship  with  Him.  Not  merely 
quality  of  vitality,  but  quality  of  personality 
is  God's  aim  so  far  as  His  work  shows  His 
mind.  The  biological  standpoint  is  not  ade- 
quate to  the  treatment  of  the  subject  before 
us;  it  must  be  supplemented  and,  if  need  be, 
even  corrected  by  the  psychological,  sociologi- 
cal, ethical,  and  theological. 

(2)  The  two  characteristics  of  life,  whether 
in  plant  or  animal,  are  assimilation  and  repro- 
duction. The  living  organism  can  transform 
matter  into  protoplasm,  or  living  substance ;  it 
is  ever  remaking  itself.    It  can  also  reproduce 


i6o  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

itself  in  another  organism;  it  thus  makes 
another  as  well  as  remakes  itself.  These  two 
distinctive  marks  of  living  things  justify  our 
speaking  of  them  as  possessing  delegated  crea- 
tive power.  There  is  a  continuous  creation. 
The  elan  vital  is  unexhausted.  What  most 
impresses  us  in  nature  is  the  abimdance,  nay, 
almost  the  prodigality  of  life,  suggesting  an 
immeasured  and  almost  imcontrolled  creative 
power.  Earth,  air,  river,  sea  swarm  with 
living  beings.  To  the  rock,  almost  bare  of 
earth,  the  rock-plant  clings.  Through  the  flags 
in  the  roadway  the  blades  of  grass  will  push. 
Given  the  least  chance  life  will  maintain  and 
reproduce  itself.  Not  only  how  abimdant,  but 
also  how  varied  are  the  forms  of  life !  And  yet 
on  closer  scrutiny  we  discover  that  God  is,  as 
it  were,  economical  in  the  ultimate  elements 
and  constant  methods,  and  only  prodigal  in 
the  combinations  and  permutations  of  these. 
Accordingly  in  plant  and  animal,  however  far 
apart  they  may  appear  in  the  order  of  evolu- 
tion, the  same  means  are  used  for  the  same 
ends;  thus  sex  runs  through  living  forms  from 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  i6i 

plant  to  animal  and  animal  to  man  as  the  most 
common  method  of  reproduction. 

(3)  There  is  asexual  reproduction,  but 
sexual  has  an  advantage  over  asexual,  (i)  It 
is  held  by  Darwin  and  other  biologists  that  a 
self -fertilized  plant  has  less  vitality  than  a 
plant  fertilized  from  another;  and  there  are 
means  used  in  the  structure  of  a  plant  to  pre- 
vent self-fertilization.  By  the  wind,  and  by 
insects  the  pollen  is  carried  from  one  plant  to 
another.  A  wider  range  of  vitality  is  reached 
by  such  fertilization;  defects  can  be  corrected 
and  excellences  augmented.  The  self -fertil- 
ized plant  is  limited  in  its  possibilities  by  its 
immediate  environment;  cross-fertilization  at 
once  enlarges  the  environment,  on  the  whole 
neutralizing  unfavourable  and  enhancing  fav- 
ourable conditions.  In  animals  we  can  study 
the  disadvantages  of  inbreeding.  Into  a  flock 
or  herd  new  elements  have  to  be  introduced  to 
preserve  health  and  improve  quality.  Among 
men  also  are  seen  the  ill-effects  of  intermar- 
riage in  small  isolated  communities,  where 
mostly  all  the  members  are  not  only  relatives, 


i62  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

but  are  living  irnder  the  same  conditions. 
From  the  physiological  standpoint  there  would 
seem  to  be  no  objection  against,  but  rather  an 
argtiment  for,  the  intermixture  of  nations  and 
even  races,  although  as  regards  races  so  imlike 
as  the  black  and  the  white  this  has  been 
challenged. 

(ii)  When  we  come  to  the  higher  animals, 
including  men,  an  additional  reason  for  sexual 
reproduction  emerges.  It  secures  for  the  off- 
spring the  care  of  two  and  not  of  one  parent 
only,  and  thus  a  greater  assurance  of  the 
necessary  provision  for  need  and  protection 
against  dangers.  While  the  greater  responsi- 
bility falls  upon  the  mother  generally,  the 
father  co-operates  more  or  less,  in  the  dis- 
charge of  the  obligations  imposed  by  parent- 
hood. The  longer  the  immaturity  of  the 
offspring,  and  its  inability  to  provide  for  or 
protect  itself,  the  more  enduring  must  be  the 
relations  between  the  parents.  The  male  fish 
fertilizes  the  spawn  which  the  female  fish  has 
scattered  on  the  sand  or  the  water;  but  as 
there  is  no  necessary  contact  of  the  one  with 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  163 

the  other,  so  there  is  no  common  care  of  off- 
spring. As  we  rise  higher  in  the  scale  of  vital 
evolution,  the  process  of  reproduction  depends 
on  such  contact  of  the  reproductive  organs  as 
involves  a  very  close  association  of  the  parents, 
and  thus  there  is  formed  a  bond  of  common 
interest  which  is  strengthened  by  the  accom- 
panying pleasure.  Among  some  animals  there 
is  even  a  more  or  less  permanent  relation  of  the 
parents  to  one  another.  Marriage  as  a  social 
institution,  recognized  and  maintained  by 
law,  gives  the  necessary  permanence  to  the 
relation  of  human  parents  in  the  interests  of 
their  children. 

(iii)  While  in  many  species  there  is  a  breed- 
ing season,  in  which  the  sexual  attraction 
is  felt  and  reproduction  takes  place,  so  as  to 
secure  the  most  favourable  conditions  for 
the  rearing  of  the  offspring,  in  man  the  de- 
sire for  sexual  association  is  more  constant. 
This  we  may  affirm  on  physiological  grounds, 
and  not  for  psychological  reasons  only.  Prob- 
ably desire  is  more  frequent  in  the  male  than 
in  the  female.    The  animal  appetite  is  trans- 


i64  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

formed  in  man  as  conscious,  volimtary  person- 
ality. He  remembers  the  satisfaction  he  had, 
he  anticipates  the  satisfaction  he  will  have, 
and  thus  memory  and  hope  stimulate  desire  to 
so  great  an  extent  that  self-control  here  is  an 
imperative  necessity.  Man  has  lost  the  almost 
sure  guidance  of  animal  instinct,  and  has  to 
follow  the  less  certain  lead  of  reason,  which  can 
so  easily  be  perverted.  This  frequency  of 
desire,  perilous  as  it  may  become,  is  the  physi- 
cal factor  in  the  more  constant  relation  of  men 
and  women  in  marriage ;  it  serves  an  essential 
purpose  in  the  vital  evolution.  Animal  off- 
spring, with  certain  exceptions,  is  not  quite  so 
helpless,  and  does  not  need  care  so  long  as  does 
the  hirnian  child ;  and  hence  the  association  of 
the  human  parents  must  be  continued  for  a 
very  much  longer  time  and  makes  greater 
demands  on  both.  Not  only  provision  for 
physical  needs,  and  protection  against  physical 
dangers  are  needed,  but  there  must  also  be 
the  teaching  and  training  necessary  for  the 
development  of  a  rational,  moral,  social,  and 
spiritual  person. 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  165 

(4)  Another  reason  for  the  sexual  associa- 
tion besides  reproduction  thus  emerges. 

As  men  and  women  are  self-conscious  per- 
sonalities, they  cannot  in  their  relation  to  one 
another  be  merely  means  towards  the  end  of 
maintaining  the  race;  they  must  fulfil  their 
purpose  as  persons  in  their  relations.  It  may 
be  said  that  they  do  realize  themselves  in  their 
common  parenthood ;  and  the  writer  would  be 
the  last  to  deny  that  the  man  is  completed  in 
fatherhood,  as  the  woman  is  in  motherhood. 
But  both  do  realize  themselves  in  their  rela- 
tion as  husband  and  wife  before  and  apart 
from  that  fuller  self-realization;  for  men  and 
women  have  need  of,  and  find  a  good  in,  one 
another.  It  is  not  merely  as  distinguished  by 
sex  physically  that  they  are  complementary 
to  one  another.  The  common  life  to  which 
each  contributes  is  a  more  complete  human 
life  in  all  respects  than  that  which  the  one 
could  attain  without  the  other.  The  love  of 
man  and  woman,  while  the  starting-point  of 
its  course  is  the  physical  difference  with  all  its 
mental,  moral,  and  spiritual  companionship, 


i66  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

counsel,  help,  and  encouragement  which  they 
can  give  to  one  another.  The  man  or 
woman  dreams  a  false  dream  who  thinks 
of  gaining  fuller  self-realization  apart  from 
marriage. 

These  two  reasons  for  sex  must,  however, 
be  put  in  their  proper  order.  Poetry,  novel, 
and  drama  conspire  in  giving  the  impression 
that  the  love  of  husband  and  wife  is  the  prim- 
ary fact,  and  possesses  the  supreme,  if  not  even 
exclusive,  importance.  The  courtship  is  sup- 
posed to  have  much  greater  interest  than  the 
married  life,  pursuit  being  more  thrilling  an 
adventure  than  possession.  In  the  evolution 
of  the  world,  in  the  process  of  life,  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  race,  however,  it  is  reproduc- 
tion, the  relation  of  parenthood,  which  must 
be  put  in  the  forefront  of  consideration.  It  is 
not  an  accident  to  be  deplored  or  avoided,  of 
the  sexual  association.  It  is  the  primary  and 
normal,  if  not  exclusive  purpose,  and  there  is 
likely  to  be  physical  injury  and  social  wrong  if 
this  dictate  of  nature  is  disregarded,  and  men 
seek  in  their  social  development  to  arrest  or 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  167 

divert  the  organic  evolution  from  its  piirpose. 
Benjamin  Kidd  has  insisted  that  the  condition 
of  progress  is  the  subordination  of  the  present 
and  the  individual  to  the  future  and  the  uni- 
versal; and  the  most  obvious  application  of 
this  principle  is  that  marriage  be  subordinated 
to  parenthood,  and  not  parenthood  to  mar- 
riage; that  the  delight  of  man  and  woman  in 
one  another  be  moralized  in  a  grateful  accep- 
tance of  the  obligations  of  a  common  parent- 
hood. 

This  does  not  mean,  however,  that  repro- 
duction is  the  sole  justification  for  sexual 
association,  and  is  illegitimate  when  that 
result  is  improbable,  as  the  love  of  husband 
and  wife,  having  emerged  in  the  vital  evolution 
as  a  necessary,  beneficent  factor  of  progress, 
becomes  a  secondary  purpose  of  marriage ;  and 
of  this  love  many,  who  have  experienced  its 
value,  dare  to  call  the  sexual  association  a 
necessary  sacrament.  It  is  not  to  raise  but  to 
lower  the  relation  to  maintain  that  reproduc- 
tion is  its  only  reason,  for  as  has  already  been 
indicated  men  and  women  must  not  be  re- 


i68  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

garded  as  merely  means  for  racial  ends.  It 
does  mean,  however,  that  to  set  aside  without 
adequate  reason  the  primary  purpose  for  the 
sexual  association  in  the  vital  evolution  while 
fulfilling  the  secondary  is  an  imwarranted 
departure  from  nature.  When  a  husband 
begins  to  speak  of,  and  address  his  wife  as 
mother,  he  is  not  simply  setting  an  example  to 
his  children,  he  is  recognizing  the  full  racial 
significance  of  his  relation  to  her  and  hers  to 
him,  not  merely  as  living  organisms,  but  as 
self-conscious  personalities.  In  reproduction 
God  delegates  to  His  creatures  the  exercise  of 
creative  power;  in  himian  parenthood  he  con- 
fers a  still  higher  glory,  in  that  the  creative 
power  is  exercised  voluntarily,  and  so  He 
imposes  a  deeper  obligation,  that  it  be  exer- 
cised worthily  for  Him. 

(5)  As  this  function  is  to  be  exercised  not 
instinctively,  but  rationally  and  conscien- 
tiously, man  must  seek  to  discover  the  divine 
intention,  so  that  he  may  be  a  fellow-worker 
with  God.  At  the  beginning,  in  stating  fim- 
damental  principles,  the  writer  has  expressed 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  169 

the  judgment  that  not  merely  fiillness  of  life, 
but  worth  of  personality  is  God's  aim.  The 
apparent  prodigality  of  life  in  the  world  is  not 
a  justification  for  the  reckless  multiplication  of 
htmian  life.  Regard  must  be  given  to  quality 
as  well  as  to  quantity.  It  is  healthy,  happy 
and  holy  human  life,  and  not  life  merely  which 
is  to  be  increased.  To  beget  or  to  have  child- 
ren imder  conditions  which  are  not  only  im- 
favourable  to,  but  destructive  of,  himian 
personality  is  no  meritorious  act.  To  have 
them  in  such  numbers  as  hinder  their  develop- 
ment and  education  to  worthy  manhood  or 
womanhood  is  not  a  virtue  deserving  applause. 
In  applying  this  consideration,  however,  we 
must  take  a  democratic  and  not  an  aristocratic 
view.  Not  a  very  small  ntmiber  of  very  su- 
perior persons  is  desirable,  but  as  large  a  num- 
ber as  possible  of  men  and  women,  who  live 
worthily  and  find  life  worth  living,  should  be 
the  aim.  The  quantity  of  life  to  be  encouraged 
must  be  always  relative  to  the  quality  of  life  to 
be  desired. 

(6)  There  are  physical,  economic,  social  and 


I70  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

moral  conditions  which  are  adverse  to  good  life 
for  great  numbers  of  the  population.  The 
question  is,  Shall  the  population  be  reduced 
so  as  to  make  imsatisfactory  conditions  less  in- 
tolerable, or  shall  the  conditions  be  so  im- 
proved that  the  population  may  be  maintained 
or  even  increased  without  loss  or  hurt?  The 
answer  of  the  social  reformer  (and  in  the 
writer's  judgment  his  is  God's  authentic  voice) 
is  that  the  conditions  must  be  improved; 
higher  wages,  better  houses,  cleaner  cities, 
fresher  air,  piirer  water,  cheaper  food,  and 
other  changes  are  all  possible  within  the  exist- 
ing social  order  and  with  the  resources  which 
it  can  even  now  command.  Hence  there  is  no 
necessity  for  the  desperate  remedy  of  a  reduc- 
tion of  the  population  to  make  life  more  toler- 
able. Some  of  the  advocates  of  the  restriction 
of  the  family  are  animated,  it  is  no  lack  of 
charity  to  say,  by  the  desire  to  maintain  con- 
ditions which  are  highly  favourable  to  the  few, 
and  actually  if  not  necessarily  deeply  hurtful 
to  the  many.  If  personality  be  the  consum- 
mation of  evolution,  then  the  subordination 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  171 

of  things  to  persons,  and  not  of  persons  to 
things,  is  the  fulfilment  of  the  creative  purpose. 
We  should  have  as  many  persons  as  possible, 
even  if  some  of  them  may  have  to  put  up  with 
fewer  things  that  there  may  be  enough  for  all. 
Into  the  economic  aspects  of  the  subject  it  is 
not  the  writer's  intention  to  enter,  but  he  may 
express  his  judgment,  based  on  what  he 
believes  to  be  adequate  knowledge,  that  in 
the  mother  country  and  the  Empire  there 
is  need  of  and  room  for  a  larger  population, 
capable  of  enjoying  a  good  human  life,  if  the 
adverse  conditions  are  changed,  as  they  can 
and  must  be  changed. 

For  the  Malthusian  assimiption  that  popula- 
tion tends  to  increase  in  geometrical,  and 
means  of  subsistence  in  arithmetical,  pro- 
gression there  is  in  present  conditions  and 
future  possibilities  in  the  world  no  justifica- 
tion. The  altogether  artificial  situation  in 
some  lands,  which  is  the  calamitous  result  of 
the  war,  is  not  a  general  or  permanent  factor 
which  we  must  take  into  accoimt.  For  the 
neo-Malthusian  contention  that  a  high  birth- 


172  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

rate  is  always  accompanied  by  a  high  death- 
rate  only  a  plausible  argument  can  be  offered. 
On  the  one  hand,  no  necessary  physical  correla- 
tion can  be  or  has  been  proved;  on  the  other 
hand,  the  adverse  conditions,  imder  which 
both  are  often  met  with,  can  be  so  altered 
that  a  rising  birth-rate  may  yet  be  made  to 
coincide  with  a  falling  death-rate.  That  is  the 
object  which  the  social  reformer  sets  before 
himself.  Until  the  belief  that  inspires  him 
has  been  proved  an  illusion,  we  need  not  resign 
ourselves  to  the  assimiption  that  death  is  a 
divinely  appointed  penalty  for  the  increase  of 
life  by  the  human  exercise  of  the  delegated 
creative  power  of  God. 

While  imder  certain  conditions,  the  limita- 
tion of  the  quantity  of  life  may  be  necessary  to 
secure  the  improvement  of  the  quality,  yet  if 
conditions  can  be  so  changed,  that  quantity 
may  be  increased  as  well  as  quality  improved, 
the  latter  seems  to  afford  a  justification  for 
the  former.  If  life  can  be  made  good  in  all 
respects  and  in  the  measure  in  which  it  can  be 
made  good,  it  is  surely  desirable  that  it  should 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  173 

also  abound.  If  the  children  of  men  can  be- 
come the  family  of  God;  if  they  can  grow  in 
likeness  to  God,  and  gain  fellowship  with  Him, 
as  the  Christian  believes  is  possible,  then  it  is 
to  be  desired  that  to  as  many  himian  beings  as 
can  be  the  opportimity  of  realizing  such  a 
destiny  should  be  given.  Parents  in  exercising 
their  delegated  creative  power  with  the  desire 
and  the  purpose  to  teach  and  train  their 
children  for  this  life  in  God,  and  for  God,  are 
fulfilling  their  calling  as  truly  and  fully  as  in 
the  worship  or  the  service  of  the  Church.  If 
this  life  in  God  means  as  it  does  life  for  others, 
then  they  are  also  rendering  a  social  service 
and  discharging  a  moral  obligation.  If  we 
properly  appreciate  the  value  of  a  human 
personality,  when  the  conditions  for  its  proper 
development  are  present,  refusal  of  the  privi- 
lege of  parenthood,  unless  for  reasons  con- 
science can  approve,  is  a  wrong  done  to  God 
and  man,  and  acceptance  is  a  racial  service 
on  which  a  blessing  will  rest. 

(7)  Apart  from  the  obligation  of  parenthood 
on  this  broad  groimd  of  the  divine  intention  for 


174  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

the  race,  other  reasons  may  be  given  why  the 
function  should  not  be  refused.  As  parenthood 
is  the  primary  purpose  of  marriage,  the  love  of 
husband  and  wife  is  ennobled  and  enriched  in 
their  common  life  for  their  children.  Children 
educate  their  parents  as  well  as  one  another. 
An  only  child  is  very  often  a  spoiled  child.  It 
is  good  and  not  evil  for  children  if  the  number 
in  the  home  calls  for  mutual  care,  tmselfishness, 
and  sacrifice.  The  home  empty  of  children  is 
not  usually  the  happiest  home;  the  full  home 
has  often  the  greatest  measure  of  happiness. 

It  is  bad,  not  good,  for  husband  and  wife, 
and  worse  for  the  wife,  to  repress  the  desire  and 
refuse  the  responsibility  of  parenthood  for  any 
reason  which  is  not  itself  so  good  as  to  afford 
an  adequate  moral  compensation.  Considera- 
tion for  the  health  of  the  wife,  solicitude  for  the 
present  welfare  and  the  future  good  of  the 
children,  desire  not  to  incur  responsibilities 
which  cannot  be  properly  met — these  are 
reasons  which  may  make  the  restriction  of  the 
family  not  an  evasion  of  duty,  but  the  accept- 
ance of  it.    But  any  of  these  reasons  must  be 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  175 

scrutinized  closely  by  conscience,  lest  worldli- 
ness,  selfishness,  distrust,  or  cowardice  should 
assume  them  as  a  disguise.  There  is  here,  as 
in  all  htmian  affairs,  also  a  call  for  confidence 
in  God,  courage  for  the  future,  sacrifice  if  need 
be  in  the  present.  Out  of  poor  homes  which 
contained  a  large  family  most  valuable  himian 
material  has  frequently  come.  Hard  work, 
poor  fare,  thrift,  unselfishness  have  not  proved 
bad  conditions  for  raising  a  hardy  and  worthy 
stock,  where  there  were  moral  principles  and 
religious  faith.  The  apparently  most  favour- 
able conditions  will  not  really  produce  the 
best  results,  unless  these  higher  elements  of 
human  personality  are  present.  The  Diction- 
ary of  National  Biography  shows  that  many 
distinguished  men  have  sprung  from  large 
families  in  poor  homes.  This  is  not  an  argu- 
ment for  any  unjust  perpetuation  of  poverty, 
or  against  any  relief  which  can  rightly  be  given 
of  the  burdens  of  parenthood ;  but  it  is  a  reason 
which  may  be  argued  against  a  parental  cau- 
tion which  may  easily  degenerate  into  a  faith- 
less  cowardice.      By   the  restriction   of  the 


176  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

family  the  world  may  be  deprived  of  a  very 
valuable  hiiman  personality.  It  is  a  great  re- 
sponsibility to  restrain,  as  it  is  also  to  exercise, 
the  delegated  creative  power  in  parenthood; 
and  restraint  or  exercise  must  be  according  to 
an  enlightened  conscience.  It  is  probably  bet- 
ter for  the  world  that  the  worldly,  selfish, 
imbelieving,  and  cowardly  should  not  become 
parents ;  but  such  moral  inferiority  is  itself  a 
wrong  to  self,  others,  and  God. 

(8)  If  there  be  adequate  reasons  for  restric- 
tion of  the  family,  the  method  must  be  worthy 
of  moral  personality,  that  is  by  self-control 
either  in  partial  or  in  total  abstinence  from  the 
sexual  association.  In  the  limitation  of  the 
association  to  the  periods  when  conception  is 
less  likely  to  take  place,  there  is  an  exercise  of 
self-control;  there  is  no  interference  with  the 
natural  process;  there  is  a  readiness  to  accept 
the  burden  of  parenthood,  if  it  should  come. 
By  asserting,  as  is  sometimes  done,  that  to 
demand  self-control  is  to  impose  a  burden  too 
grievous  to  be  borne,  we  should  offer  an  excuse 
for  imchastity  in  the  immarried,  even  if  we 


SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  177 

recognized  that  marriage  involves  conditions  f 
which  increase  the  strain.    It  may  be  true  that  \ 
imless  there  be  a  high  moral  ptirpose,  abstin-  ' 
ence  for  long  periods  is  not  good  physically,  or 
even    morally,    for    normal,    healthy    yoting 
couples,  and  is  likely  to  cause  mutual  irritation 
and  imhappiness ;  but  the  difficulty  of  a  moral    I 
obligation  is  not  a  reason  for  disregard  of  it; 
and  the  writer  is  confident  that,  if  high  moral 
purpose  dominated,  the  difficulty  would  be  / 
removed,   as  even  animal  appetites  can  bC/ 
transformed  by  proper  moral  direction. 

To  be  compassionate  to  human  weakness, 
and  not  to  condemn  those  who  do  not  rise  to 
the  height  of  this  moral  requirement  is  one 
thing;  quite  another  is  to  approve,  or  even  to 
advocate,  the  restriction  of  the  family  by  arti- 
ficial methods,  chemical  or  mechanical.  It 
may  be  that  just  as  for  the  hardness  of  men's 
hearts  divorce  must  be  tolerated,  although 
indissoluble  marriage  is  the  ideal,  so  these 
methods  must  be,  as  not  immoral  in  the  degree 
in  which  fornication  is  immoral,  but  they 
cannot  be  approved  as  moral  in  the  degree  in 


178  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

which  self-control  is.  The  writer  himself  is 
not  convinced  that  these  methods  can  be 
justified  even  physiologically,  still  less  ethic- 
ally. But  even  if  they  could,  his  main  con- 
tention would  not  be  at  all  affected,  that,  as 
God  desires  fullness  of  life  in  this  world,  an 
abimdance  of  healthy,  happy,  and  holy  life  in 
mankind,  the  creative  power  He  has  delegated 
in  human  parenthood  should  be  used  wisely, 
righteously,  and  lovingly,  so  as  to  secure  both 
the  abimdance  of  life,  and  the  conditions, 
physical,  economic,  social,  moral,  and  religious, 
which  will  make  that  life  a  good  to  be  desired, 
and  not  an  evil  to  be  shunned,  the  Creation 
thus  sharing  the  blessedness  of  the  Creator. 


IMPERIAL  AND  RACIAL  ASPECTS 

I 

By  Sir  Rider  Haggard,  K.B.E. 

In  all  the  talk  that  surges  through  the  columns 
of  the  Press  and  elsewhere,  as  to  what  is  or  is 
not  an  adequate  population  for  the  British 
Empire,  also  other  coimtries,  and  concerning 
the  problems  that  surroimd  the  subject,  I  think 
that  one  elementary  fact  is  too  often  over- 
looked, namely,  that  at  the  bottom  population 
is  a  matter  of,  and  dependent  on,  food  supply. 
Our  forefathers  knew  this  of  course,  as  it  was 
known  long  before  their  day;  for  example,  in 
ancient  Egypt  when  that  extremely  able 
Semitic  vizier,  Joseph,  took  practical  measures 
to  avert  a  famine  which  otherwise  would  have 
swept  off  three-fourths  of  the  inhabitants  of 
the  Nile  valley.  Indeed,  no  one  could  fail  to 
M  179 


l8o  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

know  it  when  the  people  of  any  given  land 
must  live  on  last  year's  harvest  and  the  exist- 
ing stock  of  cattle,  without  hope  of  more 
coming  in  when  these  were  exhausted. 

That  is  why,  to  take  our  own  case,  although 
as  I  believe  for  reasons  I  have  given  in  my 
work.  Rural  England,  that  once,  probably  in 
pre-Roman  days,  Britain  was  by  comparison 
densely  peopled,  for  many  generations  during 
the  Middle  Ages  it  could  not  number  more 
than  three  or  four  millions  souls.  We  are  told 
much  of  the  effect  of  pestilence  and  notably 
of  that  fearsome  scourge,  the  Black  Death, 
but  in  the  long  rim  I  do  not  believe  that  these 
were  the  fundamental  cause  of  the  paucity  of 
the  numbers  of  our  forefathers. 

In  those  times  folk  for  the  most  part  dwelt 
upon  the  land  where  the  water  was  pure,  the 
air  healthy,  and  there  were  no  drains  to  poison 
them.  Also,  as  checks  upon  the  birth-rate 
were  tmknown,  or  at  any  rate  scarcely  known 
— which  may  be  said  as  well  of  certain  terrible 
diseases  that  now  kill  or  sterilize  tens  of  thou- 
sands— every  healthy  married  woman  must 


IMPERIAL  AND  RACIAL  ASPECTS  i8i 

have  produced  something  like  her  natural 
quota  of  offspring.  Of  these  civil  wars  and 
tumults  no  doubt  killed  out  some,  but,  after 
all,  such  calamities  were  occasional  events. 
Therefore,  in  my  view,  the  real  cause  of  their 
non-multiplication  must  be  sought  elsewhere, 
and  I  find  it  in  the  lack  of  food. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  agriculture, 
say,  in  the  days  of  the  Norman  kings  and  long 
afterwards,  was  a  very  elementary  affair. 
Manuring  we  may  be  sure  was  seldom  prac- 
tised, except  where  seaweed  lay  to  hand  upon 
the  coast,  its  place  being  taken  by  wasteful 
fallowing;  vast  areas  were  under  forests  or 
imdrained  swamps;  there  were  no  roads,  and 
therefore  produce  could  not  be  got  to  market; 
as  "roots*'  and  "cake'*  were  unknown,  beasts 
could  not  be  stall-fed  in  winter  and  therefore 
were  few ;  the  science  of  cultivation  was  little 
understood  and  the  instruments  used  were 
rude,  with  the  result  that  the  return  per  acre 
must  have  been  miserable.  So  it  came  about 
that  from  one  cause  and  another  little  food 
was  grown,  and  without  food  the  children, 

/ 


i82  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

who  lacked  milk,  died  first,  and  after  them  all 
who  were  weak  or  sickly.  Thus  the  popula- 
tion remained  stationary,  as  from  like  causes 
it  does  in  many  a  part  of  the  world  to  this  day. 

Later  came  changes,  and  it  rose  in  response 
to  our  added  prosperity  and  the  advance  of 
knowledge,  till  from  the  beginning  of  the  last 
century  it  swelled  to  a  mighty  himian  flood, 
especially  after  the  com,  cheaply  robbed  from 
the  virgin  areas  of  the  earth,  began  to  flow  into 
our  ports.  In  short,  the  ancient  saying  was 
reversed,  and  we  reaped  where  we  did  not  sow, 
so  that  for  a  generation  and  more,  to  a  great 
extent,  we  have  been  living  upon  imported 
produce. 

This,  indeed,  became  so  much  the  rule  that 
it  was  accepted  as  a  new  and  additional  law  of 
nature,  and  those,  of  whom  I  may  perhaps 
claim  to  be  one,  who  tried  to  point  out  the 
dangers  of  the  situation  were  mocked  at. 
What  did  the  land  of  England  matter,  cried 
their  town-bred  critics  in  effect,  when  there 
were  Russia  and  Canada  and  a  dozen  other 
sources  of  cheap  supply?    Now  all  these  wise- 


IMPERIAL  AND  RACIAL  ASPECTS  183 

acres  are  upon  another  tack,  and  it  fills  me 
with  something  like  shame  to  hear  the  very- 
men  who  were  among  the  busiest  of  the 
mockers  declaiming  earnestly  upon  the  vital 
necessity  of  cultivating  our  own  acres,  and 
offering  every  kind  of  bribe  to  those  who  will 
consent  to  do  so.  However,  such  is  and  always 
has  been  the  habit  of  those  who  owe  their  place 
and  power  to  the  popular  vote,  and  there  is 
nothing  more  to  be  said. 

What  is  the  stim  of  the  argument?  This, 
I  think — That  the  United  Kingdom  is  in 
reality  only  entitled  to  just  so  many  men  and 
women  as  its  fields  would  support,  if  through 
the  action  of  enemies,  or  other  causes,  nothing 
that  can  fill  the  htrnian  stomach  could  reach 
our  shores.  As  to  what  this  number  should  be 
opinions  differ,  but  perhaps  it  might  be  put  at 
about  half  the  present  population,  or  a  little 
more,  provided  that  sufficient  feeding-stuffs  for 
cattle  and  artificial  manures  could  be  imported 
to  enable  us  to  grow  our  full  average  of  beasts 
and  com.  But  with  only  half  our  present 
population,  what  would  be  our  fate?    Many 


i84  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

wise  people  tell  us  that  it  ought  to  be  ideal, 
though  I  think  they  would  like  to  see  much  less 
than  half.  Then,  they  say,  there  would  be 
plenty  for  every  man.  Each  could  live  imder 
his  own  fig  tree,  doing  little  or  no  work,  and  so 
forth.  The  League  of  Nations  would  see  that 
it  was  so. 

Whether  these  conditions  would  really  be 
fulfilled  is  a  matter  for  argtmient.  Personally, 
I  doubt  it.  Personally,  I  believe  that  each  of 
those  Utopian  lotus-eaters  would  want  his 
neighbotir^s  lotus-tree  as  well  as  his  own  and 
try  to  take  it  by  fraud  or  force,  with  the  result 
that  things  would  go  on  much  as  before.  At 
bottom  nearly  every  man  thinks  that  there  is 
no  room  for  the  man  next  door ;  like  Alexander, 
or  a  Boer  farmer  of  the  old  sort,  he  would  rule 
alone. 

However  this  may  be,  it  is  certain  that  with 
half  or  less  of  their  existing  population  these 
islands  would  not  hold  their  present  place  in 
the  world  for  very  long,  because  some  enemy 
would  conquer  and  probably  annex  them,  after 
which  the  select  band  of  lotus-eaters  would 


IMPERIAL  AND  RACIAL  ASPECTS  185 

have  to  work  harder  than  did  any  Roman  or 
other  slaves,  not  for  their  own  benefit  but  for 
that  of  some  one  else,  or  perish  beneath  the 
lash.  Where,  for  instance,  should  we  have 
been,  and  where  would  the  Allies  have  been, 
if  during  the  late  war  Great  Britain  had  only- 
possessed  half  her  present  population?  Yet,  I 
repeat,  there  be  many  who  say,  halve  or 
quarter  our  inhabitants  that  those  who  remain 
may  have  less  to  do  and  more  to  enjoy,  as 
doubtless  would  be  the  case  in  a  world  where 
everyone  had  secure  and  equal  rights,  and  all 
fear  of  aggression  from  outside,  or  of  Bolshev- 
ism from  within,  was  insured  against  by  a  legion 
of  guardian  angels. 

So  the  argtiment,  if  correct,  comes  to  this, 
that  the  United  Kingdom,  if  so  it  may  still  be 
called,  must  either  maintain  its  population,  or 
perish  as  a  great  Power,  as  other  countries, 
which  it  is  needless  to  particularize,  have  done 
before  from  much  the  same  causes  that 
threaten  us.  Indeed,  the  historian  covild 
compile  quite  a  long  list  of  them.  In  our  in- 
stance, moreover,  the  problem  is  accentuated 


i86  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

by  the  fact  that  we  happen  to  own,  or  at  any 
rate  to  be  more  or  less  responsible  for,  about 
one  quarter  of  the  surface  of  the  earth,  all  of 
which  we  govern  or  inhabit  by  means  of  a 
handful  of  some  fifteen  million  people  of  our 
own  blood — about  the  same  number  of  souls 
as  are  packed  away  in  a  single  Indian  province 
and  never  heard  of  by  the  rest  of  the  world. 
These  few  occupy  Canada,  Australasia,  much 
of  Africa,  all  India,  and  other  parts  of  the 
earth  too  nimierous  to  mention,  and  their 
nimibers  are  kept  up  and  in  the  tropics  en- 
tirely recruited  from  the  people  of  these  little 
islands  in  the  Northern  Sea. 

If  that  recruitment  became  impossible 
because  there  were  no  more  recruits  to  send, 
what  would  happen  to  those  dependencies? 
The  tropical  ones  naturally  would  go  at  once 
back  into  the  hands  of  their  aboriginals,  or 
into  those  of  some  other  conquering  Power. 
The  others,  which  are  known  as  White  Man's 
coimtries,  would  either  have  to  turn  over  a  new 
leaf  as  regards  the  home  production  of  man- 
kind, or  to  import  such  foreigners  as  they 


IMPERIAL  AND  RACIAL  ASPECTS  187 

could  get,  until  finally  the  original  blood  was 
watered  away  and  they  were  overtaken  by 
whatever  destiny  might  be  appointed  to  them. 

Now  I  think  I  have  said  enough  to  show  that 
in  a  world  of  many  enemies,  existent  or  poten- 
tial, the  British  Empire,  if  it  is  to  continue, 
must  at  the  very  least  maintain  its  existent 
numbers.  The  rest  of  these  brief  pages  will  be 
directed  to  an  inquiry  into  our  prospect  of 
success  in  this  matter. 

I  chance  to  serve  on  the  National  Birth-Rate 
Commission,  and  as  any  member  of  that  body 
will  know,  its  inquiries  tell  an  interesting  and, 
in  some  ways,  a  rather  ominous  story.  The 
population  of  this  country,  although  it  still 
increases  by  comparison  with  its  former  rates 
of  advance,  on  the  whole  is  going  back;  indeed, 
recently  for  a  while  the  death-rate  exceeded 
the  birth-rate  in  England  and  Wales,  though 
since  then  the  latter  has  risen  a  little. 

Looking  at  the  matter  broadly,  there  is 
every  reason  to  fear  that  in  the  future,  here 
and  in  some  other  countries,  this  decrease  in 
the  himian  output  will  be  continuous  and  even 


i88  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

progressive.  To  begin  with,  in  the  British 
Isles  there  is  an  enormous  surplus  of  women 
who  can  never  marry  because  there  are  no 
men  to  marry  them;  I  believe  that  now,  after 
the  war,  in  all  it  is  put  at  something  under 
two  millions.  Except  for  a  small  proportion 
of  illegitimate  births  these  women  do  not 
reproduce  their  species,  and  therefore  must 
be  ruled  out  of  the  account.  Next,  although 
the  subject  is  not  one  upon  which  I  propose 
to  enter  upon  in  detail,  as  the  evidence  given 
before  the  Birth-Rate  Commission  and  statis- 
tics prove,  what  is  known  as  birth-control 
or  race-suicide  is  spreading  fast  throughout 
our  people,  and  among  the  upper  and  middle 
classes  is  becoming  almost  universal.  The 
large  families  which  those  of  us  who  are 
elderly  can  remember  in  our  youth  are  no 
longer  to  be  foimd  even  among  the  clergy,  who 
used  to  produce  so  many  of  our  finest  men  and 
women.  ''Only  sons"  are  becoming  the  rule, 
as  we  learned  from  the  obituary  notices  during 
the  war.  Indeed,  many  young  couples  have 
no  children  at  all,  and  this  from  choice,  having 


IMPERIAL  AND  RACIAL  ASPECTS  189 

deliberately  turned  their  backs  upon  the 
ancient  injunction  of  the  Bible  and  the  Mar- 
riage Service,  with  the  result  that  one  of  the 
most  splendid  existent  strains  of  human  beings 
is  in  the  way  of  dying  out. 

The  causes  of  this  state  of  affairs  are  various: 
the  growth  of  knowledge  which  makes  preven- 
tion easy;  the  shrinking  from  inconvenience 
and  pain ;  the  love  of  pleasure ;  the  desire  to  be 
free  from  hampering  ties,  and  to  preserve  an 
attractive  appearance;  the  difficulty  of  repro- 
duction which,  scientists  tell  us,  follows  on  the 
prolonged  habit  of  non-production;  and  so 
forth.  The  chief  of  them,  however,  so  far  as 
the  middle  classes  are  concerned,  is  undoubt- 
edly economic.  None  who  must  rely  upon  a 
fixed  income,  or  upon  moderate  means  saved 
or  inherited,  can  possibly  afford  a  large 
family. 

Within  the  last  few  years  the  costs  of  living 
have  more  than  doubled,  and  there  is  every 
reason  to  suppose  that  these  will  continue  to 
grow  under  the  careful  husbandry  of  the 
profiteer.    Food  and  clothing  have  reached  an 


I90  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

impossible  figure;  schools  increase  their  fees 
that  already  were  large  enough ;  houses  become 
more  and  more  tmobtainable  at  a  moderate 
price;  servants,  if  they  are  to  be  foimd  at  all, 
demand  enormous  wages  in  return  for  which 
they  do  little  or  no  work,  and  constantly  leave 
their  employers  in  the  lurch;  and  so  on,  with 
the  result  that  in  the  end  only  the  rich  can 
stand  the  strain  and  preserve  a  decent  appear- 
ance, while  even  their  means  practically  are 
halved  by  taxation.  Under  these  circtmi- 
stances  it  is  idle  to  suppose  that  even  if  parents 
desire  children,  which  is  by  no  means  always 
the  case,  many  will  be  produced.  Few  wish 
to  see  their  offspring  in  the  gutter  or  to  be 
dragged  thither  to  keep  them  company. 

It  may  be  argued  that  these  considerations 
do  not  apply  to  what  are  known  as  the  labour- 
ing classes.  Their  children  are  educated  for 
nothing;  often  they  receive  free  meals;  free 
doctoring  and  milk  at  a  special  price.  Their 
teeth,  which  cost  the  "black-coated"  families 
pounds  on  poimds  yearly,  are  treated  gratis; 
their  operations  are  performed  in  hospitals 


IMPERIAL  AND  RACIAL  ASPECTS  191 

for  nothing;  they  are  the  recipients  of  a  thou- 
sand charities;  and  if  they  show  the  slightest 
ability,  all  sorts  of  assistance  is  thrust  upon 
them  through  secondary  schools  and  other- 
wise. Moreover,  their  future  is  assured,  except 
in  the  case  of  the  most  useless.  Highly  re- 
munerative work  awaits  them  as  soon  as  they 
become  adult.  Trade  unions  protect  them; 
politicians  eager  for  their  votes  endow  them 
with  every  possible  benefit  in  the  present,  and 
promise  them  much  more  for  the  future  at  the 
cost  of  the  State  and  the  ratepayer.  To  take 
but  one  example:  frequently  the  miner  earns 
more  than  the  learned  clergyman  whose  educa- 
tion has  cost  at  least  £1000. 

Yet  in  face  of  all  this,  the  system  of  birth- 
control  is  strikingly  downwards,  and  the  most 
of  such  increase  as  there  is  of  the  population 
in  Britain  is  to  be  found  today  among  those 
strata  of  society  which  Mr.  Lloyd  George, 
I  think,  has  classed  as  C3.  Another  thing. 
Certain  diseases  are  allowed  to  rage  practically 
unchecked,  with  the  result  that  tens  of  thou- 
sands either  die  or  lead  blighted  lives,  leaving 


192  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 


1 


behind  them  offspring  accursed  from  birth. 
Further,  the  war  has  taken  from  us  a  vast  tithe 
of  the  finest  of  our  manhood,  and  thus  rendered 
a  corresponding  nimiber  of  women  tmproduc- 
tive  and,  in  many  cases,  left  them  without 
support.  Lastly,  an  enormous  amount  of 
potential  life  is  destroyed  by  the  practice  of 
abortion,  upon  which  Mr.  Justice  Darling 
commented  the  other  day  that,  it  is  believed, 
is  increasing  largely  both  here  and  elsewhere. 
To  confine  myself  for  the  moment  to  the 
case  of  the  British  Empire,  which  naturally 
is  the  most  important  for  us,  we  have  to  recog- 
nize the  fact  that  those  evils  on  which  I  have 
touched  appear  to  be  prevalent  also  in  the 
various  Dominions  of  the  Crown.  There  all 
the  phenomena  repeat  themselves,  and  there 
also  people  crowd  from  the  land  into  the  great 
cities,  with  the  accustomed  results.  Life  in  the 
country  is  dull  and  lonesome;  society  in  the 
back  country  or  on  the  prairies  is  limited,  and 
the  delights  of  cinema  and  other  shows  are 
lacking.  So  it  comes  about  that  the  cities 
absorb  the  life  of  the  community  as  leeches 


RACIAL  AND  IMPERIAL  ASPECTS  193 

suck  blood,  and  with  similar  effects  upon  the 
body  politic. 

There  appears  therefore  to  be  small  hope 
that  the  white  population  of  the  Empire  will 
increase  largely  in  the  immediate  future. 
Indeed  it  may  become  stationary,  and  there  is 
even  a  possibility  that  it  will  dwindle,  as  the 
population  of  France  shows  a  tendency  to  do. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  there  exists  an 
important  school  of  thought — ^to  which  I  have 
alluded  above — among  whose  advocates  are 
many  able  men,  which  annotmces  that  all  this 
is  just  as  it  should  be;  that  the  fewer  people 
there  are  bom  in  the  world,  the  better  will  be 
the  lot  of  those  who  do  survive,  since  these  will 
find  to  their  hands  more  food,  more  pleasure, 
and  the  less  necessity  to  work.  Doubtless 
this  is  quite  true,  or  would  be,  if  the  inhabit- 
ants of  the  whole  earth  made  an  axiom  of  this 
new  doctrine.  If,  for  example,  the  people  of 
Germany  had  determined  in  the  past  that  they 
would  have  no  more  inhabitants  per  square 
mile  than  those  of  France,  where  would  have 
been  the  danger  to  France?    But  this  is  just 


194  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

what  they  did  not  do,  with  the  result  that  we 
all  know  the  position  in  which  France  found 
herself  in  the  autumn  of  1914,  when,  if  we  had 
not  gone  to  her  assistance,  she  would  have 
been  destroyed,  beggared,  and  enslaved.  And 
if  our  small-population  advocates  had  suc- 
ceeded in  translating  their  hopes  into  facts 
thirty  or  forty  years  ago,  we  should  not  have 
been  able  to  go  to  the  assistance  of  France  for 
lack  of  men,  with  the  result  that  after  her 
annihilation  we  must  have  been  driven  down 
the  same  road  of  irredeemable  disaster. 

But,  say  some,  this  matter  will  soon  right 
itself,  since  the  same  motives,  call  them  selfish 
or  prudential,  as  you  will,  will  get  to  work 
among  the  aggressive  peoples,  and  especially 
the  Germanic  races,  with  the  same  fruit — 
namely,  that  they  will  become  as  weak  and  as 
incapable  of  offence  as  the  rest  of  us. 

It  may  be  so,  or  it  may  not,  since  a  great 
nation  with  great  ambitions  to  fulfil  and  a 
great  revenge  to  work  may  decline  to  allow 
its  men  and  women  to  follow  this  easy  path. 
Sweeping  aside  the  prejudices,  as  it  might  then 


RACIAL  AND  IMPERIAL  ASPECTS  195 

call  them,  of  an  earlier  time,  and  adopting 
methods  that  decent  and  old-fashioned  folk 
would  think  tmpleasant  and  indeed  imhal- 
lowed,  it  might  by  one  means  or  another  insist 
upon  an  adequate  and  healthy  reproduction 
of  its  species.  Cattle  can  be  bred  to  any 
desired  quantity  to  be  the  food  of  man,  and 
why  not  human  beings  to  be  the  food  of  guns, 
and  to  ensure  the  domination  of  their  race 
over  great  stretches  of  the  earth? 

Personally,  however,  I  incline  to  the  view 
that  in  the  long  rim  all  such  cold-blooded 
schemes  will  break  down,  and  that  the  motives 
and  conditions  which  issue  in  birth  restriction 
will,  in  the  end,  prevail  among  the  Teutons  as 
elsewhere.  Then,  their  advocates  will  answer, 
you  give  away  your  case,  since  everywhere 
nimibers  will  lessen  in  the  most  satisfactory 
fashion  and  all  will  be  peace  and  plenty. 

Those  who  talk  in  this  way,  however,  forget 

that  the  white  races  are,  in  the  slang  phrase, 

not  the  only  pebbles  on  the  beach.     There 

remains  the  East.    On  the  fringe  of  the  East, 

also,  there  remains  Russia,  herself  half  Oriental, 
13 


196  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

into  the  darkness  of  whose  countless  hordes 
this  new  Hght  has  not  yet  penetrated.  Russia, 
I  believe,  has  a  population  of  about  180,000,- 
000,  although  this  total  may  have  been  some- 
what lessened  of  late  by  the  miseries  that 
Bolshevism  has  brought  upon  her,  and  it  will 
be  some  time  before  the  race-suicide  idea,  or 
rather  practice,  diminishes  these  numbers  to 
any  marked  extent.  Until  they  are  diminished, 
if  directed  and  organized  by  German  skill  and 
courage,  aided  by  other  sinister  influences 
what  devastation  might  they  not  work  upon 
the  rest  of  Europe,  should  its  man-power  be 
depleted! 

But  behind  Russia  lies  the  East,  which  is, 
and  probably  for  a  great  period  of  time  will 
continue  to  be,  animated  by  morals,  rules,  and 
standards  utterly  different  from  our  own.  The 
East  is  polygamous  and  there  are,  I  believe, 
few  immarried  women.  The  East  worships 
its  ancestors  and  therefore  desires  to  have 
descendants  that  these  in  turn  may  worship. 
The  ambition  of  the  average  Eastern  woman 
is  not  to  restrict,  but  to  produce  life,  of  which 


RACIAL  AND  IMPERIAL  ASPECTS  197 

the  quantity  is  only  limited  by  that  of  the  food 
supply.  Indeed,  even  in  the  face  of  the  risk 
or  even  the  certainty  of  famine,  the  life  is  still 
produced:  yes,  if  afterwards  it  must  be  sacri- 
ficed. 

I  remember  when  I  was  a  yotmg  man  in 
Africa  that  a  gentleman  who  had  just  arrived 
from  China  came  to  stay  with  me.  He  told  me 
that  there,  in  one  of  the  great  cities,  he  had 
seen  the  carts  going  round  collecting  female 
infants,  living  or  dead,  who  had  been  exposed 
during  the  previous  night.  Those  infants  had 
been  allowed  to  come  to  birth  in  the  hope  that 
they  might  be  boys;  if  they  were  girls  they 
were  destroyed,  because  there  was  nothing  on 
which  they  could  be  fed,  or  rather  because  the 
existent  food  was  required  for  the  support  of 
males  who  in  due  course  would  earn  their 
living  and  support  their  aged  parents. 

Now,  while  all  these  dim  Eastern  myriads 
were  imarmed  and  helpless,  they  did  not 
greatly  matter  to  the  arrogant  white  races. 
But  as  Japan  has  taught  us  within  our  own 
generation,  they  are  no  longer  imarmed  or 


198  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

helpless,  and  what  Japan  has  become  today 
the  peoples  of  China  and  of  other  places  may, 
and  probably  will,  become  tomorrow.  Why 
not?  For  the  most  part  they  are  brave  men, 
and  fatalistic  as  regards  suffering  and  death. 
Also  they  are  willing  to  work  and  live  much 
harder  than  we  do,  and  are  very  clever.  If  we 
can  build  aircraft  and  make  poison-gases,  so 
can  they  who  have  coal  and  iron  and  chemists 
at  command,  and  send  their  ablest  citizens  to 
spy  out  our  secrets  in  every  city.  Why,  then, 
having  first  earned  the  necessary  wealth  by 
trade,  should  they  not  supply  themselves  with 
fleets  and  armies  and  all  the  hellish  panoply 
of  modem  war? 

Because  by  nature  they  are  too  peaceful: 
that  is  the  general  answer.  I  suggest  that  men 
and  women,  who  are  also  by  nature  affectionate, 
do  not  take  any  real  pleasure  in  murdering 
their  children  because  they  have  nothing  with 
which  to  stay  their  stomachs.  They  only  do 
this  because  they  prefer  that  there  should  come 
to  them  a  quick  death  rather  than  one  that  is 
slow,  or  that  if  they  do  manage  to  live,  it 


RACIAL  AND  IMPERIAL  ASPECTS  199 

should  be  but  to  suffer  every  degradation  and 
misery  known  to  mankind.  If  they  came  to 
learn  that  there  were  other  great  spaces  of  the 
world  which  would  support  millions  of  them, 
lying  to  their  hands  and  but  scantily  garri- 
soned, is  it  not  probable  that  soon  or  late  they 
might  build  the  ships  necessary  to  take  them 
there,  or  rather  in  the  first  place  to  exterminate 
or  subdue  the  handful  that  at  present  own 
these  places?  Well  do  I  remember  that  wise 
and  prescient  man,  my  late  friend,  ex-Presi- 
dent Roosevelt,  discussing  this  matter  with 
me  and,  having  indicated  one  of  them,  saying 
grimly: 

''That  will  be  the  first  place  to  go!'* 
Having  touched  upon  this  subject,  I  turn  to 
that  of  the  population  of  the  British  Empire, 
and  to  the  question  of  how  it  can  be  increased. 
The  larger  matter  of  the  population  of  the 
world  I  leave  aside,  because  I  believe  that  its 
numbers  will  never  vary  to  any  appreciable 
extent,  even  if  they  have  ever  really  done  so 
in  the  past,  considering  the  globe  as  a  whole. 
Where  there  are  coimtries  that  can  grow  food. 


200  THE  CONTROL  OP  PARENTHOOD 

they  will  be  occupied  to  their  full  food-produc- 
ing capacity  so  soon  as  they  are  discovered  and 
means  are  provided  to  reach  them,  or  at  any 
rate  within  a  measurable  count  of  years.  By 
what  races  they  will  be  occupied  is  another 
matter,  and  one  with  which  in  the  long  run 
Nature  does  not  concern  herself. 

It  comes  to  this,  then — the  Western  races 
and  their  progeny  in  various  parts  of  the  earth 
must  either  keep  up  their  nimibers  or  nm  the 
risk  of  being  submerged  by  the  Eastern  races, 
and  this  within  a  short  period  of  time,  say  a 
couple  of  centuries.  Especially  is  this  the  case 
with  the  vast  collection  of  States  known  as  the 
British  Empire,  whose  enormous  territories  are 
occupied  by  but  a  few  of  oiu*  own  blood.  Nor 
in  every  instance  is  it  necessary  to  look  to  the 
East  for  the  immediate  peril.  Thus  Africa 
has  aborigines  of  its  own  who,  with  a  Httle 
more  instruction  in  the  white  man's  arts  of 
war,  of  which  they  have  received  a  first  lesson 
at  German  hands  during  the  last  five  years, 
would  be  quite  capable  of  producing  the 
dreaded  catastrophe. 


RACIAL  AND  IMPERIAL  ASPECTS  201 

Also  it  may  be  helped  forward  by  other 
means.  When  I  was  in  South  Africa  in  1914, 
and  again  during  the  war,  I  was  greatly  struck 
by  the  ntimber  of  persons  of  mixed  origin 
whom  I  saw  walking  about  the  streets  of  the 
cities.  This  miscegenation,  as  I  believe  it  is 
called,  is,  I  was  told  by  prominent  observers 
in  the  country,  much  on  the  increase.  If  so, 
it  is  imnecessary  to  dwell  upon  its  ultimate 
results  in  a  land  of  which  the  Europeans 
amount  to  only  about  twenty-one  per  cent, 
of  the  total  population. 

To  stmi  up,  it  will,  I  think,  be  admitted  that 
under  all  these  circumstances  it  is  absolutely 
necessary  that  the  white  citizens  of  the  Empire 
should  be  increased  in  ntmiber.  Sixty  million 
persons  of  our  blood  are  not  too  many  to  rule 
over  some  three  hundred  and  seventy  millions 
of  native  peoples,  which,  according  to  Whit- 
taker,  seems  to  be  the  correct  proportions.  In 
the  past  it  has  been  done,  but  the  question  is, 
in  the  absence  of  a  considerable  increase  of  the 
white  stock,  whether  it  can  continue  to  be 
done  in  the  future  voider  the  changing  condi- 


202  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

tions  of  the  world.  At  any  rate  it  will  be  ad- 
mitted that  such  an  increase  is  most  desirable, 
and  indeed  most  vital.    Will  it  be  forthcoming? 

Of  those  sixty  millions,  it  must  be  remem- 
bered, about  forty-five  millions  live  in  these 
little  islands;  it  is  the  balance  that  holds  the 
vast  overseas  national  estates  upon  which  so 
many  envious  eyes  are  turned.  Nor  is  this 
wonderful  seeing  that  Australasia,  with  a 
population  of,  I  think,  imder  seven  millions 
all  told,  could,  it  is  admitted,  support  from 
fifty  to  a  himdred  millions  of  white  folk,  or  of 
others  who  can  thrive  in  semi-tropical  climates, 
such  as  that  of  the  northern  territory,  a  nimi- 
ber  which  it  is  impossible  to  calculate.  Yet 
during  all  the  generations  that  it  has  been 
occupied,  this  vast  Dominion  has  only  suc- 
ceeded in  importing  or  in  begetting  a  total  of 
imder  seven  million  souls — ^namely,  about  the 
population  of  London — and  of  these  a  half, 
or  thereabouts,  dwell  in  a  few  big  cities. 

If  the  Empire  population  could  be  redis- 
tributed the  outlook  might  be  better,  but  in 
practice  this  is  impossible.    Nowadays  people 


RACIAL  AND  IMPERIAL  ASPECTS  203 

cannot  be  moved  in  blocks  on  the  pattern  of 
the  customs  of  the  Incas  of  Peru.  Therefore, 
for  the  refreshment  of  the  Dominions  with 
British  blood  we  must  rely  upon  the  ordinary 
processes  of  migration,  of  which  any  ordered 
arrangement  has  hitherto  been  entirely  neg- 
lected by  the  Imperial  power.  Indeed,  a  huge 
proportion  of  our  emigrants  have  gone  to  the 
United  States,  though  of  late  this  stream  has 
lessened  somewhat,  and  will  doubtless  receive 
a  further  check  from  the  American  ''Pussy- 
foot** legislation,  for  the  reason  that  the  aver- 
age inhabitant  of  the  United  Kingdom  does 
not  care  to  choose  a  new  home  in  any  cotmtry 
where  he  will  be  subject  to  coercion,  of  what- 
ever sort  it  may  be.  Those  cotmtries  which 
desire  to  attract  immigrants  would  do  well  to 
leave  "Pussyfoot**  alone. 

Our  surplus  then,  it  may  be  hoped,  will 
henceforward  in  the  main  be  turned  to  those 
lands  where  our  own  flag  flies,  but  what  that 
surplus  may  nimiber  is  another  matter. 
Earlier  in  this  article  I  have  set  out  some  of  the 
causes  that  tend  to  render  our  population 


204  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

stationary.  Whether  these  will  persist  it  is 
impossible  to  say,  and  on  the  credit  side  of  the 
account  it  should  be  remarked  that  within  the 
last  few  months  there  has  been  a  slight  rise  in 
the  birth-rate,  at  any  rate  in  certain  cities  and 
districts.  This  may  be  a  mere  temporary 
manifestation  that  has  to  do  with  the  cessa- 
tion of  the  war,  or,  as  we  all  hope,  it  may 
continue.  If  it  does  continue  it  will  help  to 
some  extent  to  palliate  our  anxieties ;  if  it  does 
not  the  position  is  menacing. 

Nations  do  not  remain  stationary  for  long. 
Either  they  increase  or  they  decline:  it  is 
written  large  in  history.  Should  the  British 
Empire  begin  to  decline,  it  will  be  a  very  ter- 
rible event,  since  its  ultimate  fall  would  mean 
the  greatest  loss  that  the  known  history  of  the 
world  records — a  truth  that  even  our  rivals, 
yes,  and  our  enemies  will,  I  believe,  admit. 

Omitting  the  decrees  of  Providence,  the 
ultimate  issue  of  this  matter  imder  our  social 
arrangements  lies  in  the  hands  of  o\ir  women. 
As  I  said  in  giving  evidence  before  the  Na- 
tional Birth-Rate  Commission,  in  my  opinion, 


RACIAL  AND  IMPERIAL  ASPECTS  205 

the  best  thing  that  we  can  do  is  to  appeal  to 
the  women  of  the  Empire  to  save  the  Empire, 
and  to  impress  upon  them  the  fact  that  great 
nations  are  not  destroyed :  they  commit  suicide. 
I  am  by  no  means  certain  that  such  an  appeal 
will  have  any  effect.  Still  it  should  be  made, 
that  the  final  responsibility  may  rest  upon  the 
right  shoulders. 

Or  perhaps  the  age  we  live  in  and  the  con- 
ditions of  modem  life  are  really  to  blame,  and 
not  either  one  sex  or  the  other.  My  own  con- 
viction is  that  the  root  of  all  this  trouble,  as  I 
have  preached  for  thirty  years,  is  the  deser- 
tion of  the  land  for  the  cities.  On  the  land  men 
are  created;  in  the  cities  they  perish. 

But  all  these  arguments  take  the  real  respon- 
sibility back  a  long  way — namely,  to  the  gates 
of  Fate  itself.  If  Fate,  to  give  the  Power  that 
rules  the  destinies  of  the  Universe  and  men  its 
pre-Christian  name,  decrees  that  the  white 
races  and  their  form  of  civilization  are  to 
perish  or  be  transmuted  and  absorbed,  so  it 
will  befall,  and  I  do  not  suppose  that  a  few 
thousand  years  hence  the  world  will  trouble 


206  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

itself  overmuch  about  the  matter;  for  after  all 
it  has  seen  a  good  many  civilizations  of  which 
we  know,  and  possibly  others  of  which  we 
know  nothing. 

Still,  that  the  danger  of  which  I  have  tried 
to  speak  is  real  and  not  imagined,  I  believe  that 
any  who,  should  these  words  survive,  may 
chance  to  read  them  and  others  I  have  written, 
even  two  generations  hence,  will  find  too  much 
cause  to  admit.  The  odd  thing  is  that  its  exist- 
ence never  seems  to  occur  to  that  select  band 
of  our  super-folk  who  are  known  as  statesmen, 
for  which  reason,  I  suppose,  they  give  no 
thought  to  these  very  manifest  perils  and  sug- 
gest no  measiires  to  confront  them.  In  their 
defence  it  must  be  remembered  that  events 
which  may  or  may  not  happen  a  generation  or 
two  hence  are  not  in  the  category  of  what  are 
known  as  practical  politics. 

On  the  whole,  the  British  Empire  has  done 
good  in  a  disappointing  world,  and  it  will  be 
sad  if  it  is  broken  up  or  left  desolate  because  of 
a  lack  of  children  to  carry  on  its  responsibili- 
ties and  its  glory. 


II 


By  Marie  Carmichael  Stopes,  D.Sc,   Ph.D., 
RL.S.,  F.R.S.Lit. 

The  vision  of  what  the  human  race  may  one 
day  become  has  hovered  for  many  centuries 
over  the  minds  of  the  greater  thinkers  and 
teachers.  Utopias  have  been  written  picturing 
our  wonderful  development  in  the  distant 
future,  when  humanity  shall  be  dwelling  in 
perfect  harmony  with  ideal  surroundings.  An 
extension  of  the  powers  of  human  beings,  an 
increase  in  their  beauty  or  in  the  intricate 
workings  of  their  minds  are  postulated  de- 
liberately or  are  implied  by  all  the  writers  of 
Utopias;  but  the  dreams  of  the  Utopians  of 
every  type  hovered  and  still  hover  unattached 
to  the  solid  earth  on  which  we  walk;  the  con- 
necting link  between  the  present  and  these 

airy  futures  is  never  forged  and  placed  at  the 

207 


208  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

disposal  of  humanity  by  the  creators  of  visions 
splendid. 

The  race  needs  to  be  led  into  the  promised 
land,  and  the  path  clearly  marked  which  will 
lead  directly  from  the  grey  present  to  the 
future  glorious  state.  Today  the  multitudes 
are  too  great  to  be  led  literally  and  physically 
into  some  new  and  narrow  region  of  the  earth. 
It  is  within  the  lands  in  which  they  now  dwell 
that  the  people  must  be  transformed  and  led 
into  greater  perfection  of  physical,  mental 
and  spiritual  beauty. 

If,  then,  we  are  to  find  the  way  into  Utopia 
while  still  remaining  on  the  soil  we  now  tread, 
it  is  in  ourselves  that  we  must  work  the  trans- 
formation. Is  that  possible?  Not  as  indivi- 
duals but  as  a  race  it  appears  to  me  to  be  not 
only  possible  but  within  our  reach.  Those  who 
are  grown  up  in  the  present  active  generations, 
the  matured  and  hardened,  with  all  their  weak- 
nesses and  flaws,  cannot  do  very  much,  though 
they  may  do  something  with  themselves. 
They  can,  however,  study  the  conditions  tmder 
which  they  came  into  being,  discover  where  lie 


RACIAL  AND  IMPERIAL  ASPECTS  209 

the  chief  sources  of  defect,  and  eliminate  those 
sources  of  defect  from  the  coming  generation  so 
as  to  remove  from  those  who  are  still  to  be  bom 
the  needless  burdens  the  race  has  carried. 

The  first  step  into  the  new  Utopia  is  the 
reverent  and  honest  realization  of  the  mi- 
raculous power  of  understanding  love  coupled 
with  a  htmible  recognition  of  the  great  essen- 
tial fact  that  human  individuals  are  biological 
units  in  their  bodily  sense,  just  as  are  individ- 
ual animals,  plants,  or  trees.  Throughout  the 
animal  world,  and  throughout  even  the  plant 
world,  there  has  been  a  continuous  trend  of 
reduction  in  the  number  of  offspring,  and  an 
increase  in  the  security  and  endowment  of  the 
offspring  produced.  Yet  even  today  the  uni- 
versal law  of  all  reproductive  life  is  to  produce 
inntmierably  more  offspring  than  can  possibly 
survive:  each  young  struggling  life  once  en- 
dowed with  an  embryonic  body  has  an  amaz- 
ing vitality  and  zest  for  living,  and  the  result 
of  this  is  that  each  will  cling  to  life  wherever 
it  is  possible  to  retain  a  foothold.  Yet  where 
they  are  crowded,  each  individual  is  robbing 


2IO  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

its  neighbour  of  necessary  light,  space,  and 
food,  dwarfing  and  stunting  each  and  all.  A 
very  simple  illustration  of  this  law  can  be 
demonstrated  by  planting  on  two  plots  of  the 
some  ground  each  six  feet  square,  in  one,  one 
dozen  and  in  the  other  one  himdred  plants  of 
the  same  sort  (for  instance  Shirley  poppies), 
and  allowing  them  to  grow  to  maturity.  In 
the  first  plot  those  that  have  room  spread  their 
leaves  to  the  sim  and  air  and  grow  to  handsome 
individuals.  In  the  second,  the  spindly,  small, 
imdeveloped  stems  support  leaves  which  are 
fighting  for  the  light  and  air,  and  if  the  plants 
flower  at  all  they  do  so  with  tmdersized  flowers. 
In  the  former,  the  blossoms  are  three  or  four 
inches  in  diameter;  in  the  latter  the  shabby 
flowers  may  be  half  an  inch  or  less  across, 
yet  even  the  starved  and  stunted  flowers  will 
go  on  producing  their  like,  crowding  each 
other  to  death,  imtil  probably,  in  the  course  of 
nature  that  plot  of  grotmd  is  captured  by  a 
few  isolated  seedlings  of  some  totally  different 
type  which,  coming  in  small  nimibers,  each 
develop  sturdily,  taking  all  the  space. 


RACIAL  AND  IMPERIAL  ASPECTS  211 

Humanity  is  now  beginning  to  awaken  to 
the  puny  and  degenerate  condition  of  innumer- 
able thousands,  particularly  in  the  cities,  where 
an  observant  eye  may  often  search  long  for  a 
fine  healthy-looking  individual. 

The  sad  features  of  racial  degeneration 
which  assail  us  on  every  side  today  are  nearly 
all  the  result  of  two  great  wrongs.  One  is 
crowding,  and  the  other  the  devastating  infec- 
tion known  as  Venereal  Disease. 

The  elimination  of  sex  disease,  because  of 
its  more  rapidly  contagious  nature,  is  in  some 
respects  the  most  urgent  problem  immediately 
facing  humanity,  and  were  we  brave  enough  to 
take  this  appalling  scourge  in  the  open  and 
fight  it  with  every  sort  of  knowledge  that  is 
available,  its  evils  might  be  rapidly  curbed. 
So  terrible  are  the  results,  particularly  of 
syphilis,  upon  the  next  generation,  that  all  who 
think  agree  that  no  diseased  person  should 
risk  the  transmission  of  such  curses  to  his  off- 
spring. This,  in  whatever  form  the  diseased 
person    may    protect    the    next    generation, 

whether  by  refraining  from  marriage,  or  by 
14 


212  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

separation  from  his  wife  within  marriage,  is 
in  principle  a  form  of  control  of  conception, 
a  form  which  all  the  Churches  and  all 
thinking  people  must  insist  is  a  barest  racial 
necessity. 

So  acute  have  recent  events  made  these 
problems  of  the  sex  and  other  heritable  dis- 
eases, that  there  is  little  doubt  that  humanity 
will  be  driven  to  deal  frankly  with  the  problem 
and  to  eliminate  such  contagions,  as  they  have 
well-nigh  eliminated  small-pox  and  leprosy 
from  this  country. 

In  a  sense,  disease  may  be  looked  upon  as 
an  abnormality,  an  imnatural  and  repulsive 
condition  which  a  normal  healthy  mind  revolts 
from  and  conquers,  and  it  is  therefore  less 
dangerous  to  the  race  in  some  ways  than  a 
deleterious  condition  considered  *' natural.'* 

The  former  of  the  two  great  sources  of  the 
weakening  of  the  human  stock,  namely  crowd- 
ing, is  the  more  fimdamental,  because  an  ever- 
present  source  of  weakness,  even  in  healthy 
stocks  of  normal,  happy,  imtainted  people. 
Hence  crowding  is,  in  my  opinion  even  more 


RACIAL  AND  IMPERIAL  ASPECTS  213 

serious  a  menace  to  himianity  than  an  open 
enemy  like  disease. 

Crowding  before  birth,  crowding  in  the 
womb  of  the  overburdened  mother,  is  at  pre- 
sent the  greatest  of  all  natural  sources  of  the 
dwarfing  and  stunting  of  humanity,  sapping 
the  resources  of  the  race  in  every  direction. 
And  this  will  for  ever  remain  until  humanity 
takes  complete  control  over  its  conceptions. 
Sex  disease  may — should — be  speedily  elimi- 
nated, but  the  impulse  to  overpopulate  is  an 
inherent  characteristic  in  untutored  humanity. 
Little  is  realized  by  the  general  public  of  the 
immensity  of  the  effects  of  this  crowding  in  the 
womb  of  the  ignorant  and  helpless  woman,  of 
the  torment  she  endures,  of  the  weakening  of 
the  himian  stock  which  results.  Too  little  has 
it  been  realized  that  it  is  this  antenatal  as  well 
as  postnatal  crowding  that  has  been  warping 
the  race,  so  that  I  must  make  this  more 
apparent. 

Early  and  late  Nature  provides  a  possibility 
for  the  establishment  of  the  himian  embryo  in 
the   soil   of  its  mother's   body.      Crowding 


214  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

through  her  into  the  world  comes  a  perpetual 
stream  of  potential  lives.  If  each  is  to  develop 
to  anything  like  its  potential  perfection,  they 
must  be  given  space  and  time  to  grow,  just  as 
the  poppy  seed  must  have  space  to  grow  in  the 
soil.  When  one  embryo  has  established  itself, 
it  can  hold  at  bay  the  others  for  the  nine 
months,  taking  all  for  itself,  and  developing 
by  using  the  strength  of  its  mother.  But, 
directly  it  is  separated  from  her,  the  onrush 
of  the  other  potential  individuals  begins  again, 
and  if  then  another  and  another  repeatedly 
takes  root,  each  does  so  in  a  physical  substra- 
tum successfully  weakened  by  what  it  has 
given  to  its  immediate  predecessor.  Yet  still 
the  resources  of  vitality  are  great,  and  in 
repeated  and  immediate  succession  two,  three, 
four,  or  perhaps  more  fresh  lives  may,  without 
too  great  disaster,  grow  closely  adjacent  in 
time,  if  the  original  mother-stock  is  strong. 
But,  as  in  the  plot  overplanted  with  the  poppy 
seedlings,  crowding,  once  it  has  reached  the 
point  of  intensity,  will  begin  to  show  in  the 
ptinier  size  and  weakening  of  the  human  indivi- 


RACIAL  AND  IMPERIAL  ASPECTS  215 

duals.  We  are  accustomed  to  think  of  crowds 
as  being  coincident  in  space  and  time,  but  I 
should  like  the  thought  to  penetrate  our  social 
consciousness  that  in  the  womb  the  time  factor 
which  makes  the  crowd  may  be  extended. 

These  are  physical  facts.  There  are  other 
and  subtler  results  from  crowding.  The  race 
pictured  in  the  Utopias — the  human  race  as  it 
may  be — must  have  not  only  well-developed 
and  sufficiently  beautiful  and  adaptable  bodies, 
it  must  have  a  mind  increasingly  attuned  to 
the  ideal.  The  effect  of  its  environment  on  the 
mind  has  been  partly  veiled  by  the  marvellous 
mastery  which  at  times  the  mind  may  show 
over  its  physical  environment.  But  a  deep 
imderlying  truth  is  the  fact  that  the  expression 
of  the  potentialities  of  a  mind  depend  on  the 
bodily  form  through  which  they  act,  as  does 
the  electric  current  depend  on  the  wires  of  the 
lamp  for  its  transmutation  into  light. 

What  of  the  minds  that  are  formed  in  the 
crowded  spaces  of  an  overburdened  mother? 
Can  they  be  well  formed  in  the  poison  of 
bitterness  provoked  by  the  anguish  and  horror 


2i6  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

of  iindesired  maternity?  Sometimes,  by  rare 
chance,  it  may  appear  that  this  is  so,  although 
imless  the  whole  life  in  its  most  secret  and 
inmost  recesses  is  made  bare,  who  is  to  say  how 
much  any  individual  may  today  suffer  secretly 
and  in  bravely  hidden  mental  depression  as 
result  of  the  secret  misery  of  his  mother  while 
she  carried  him? 

The  credulous  reliance  which  humanity  is 
encouraged  to  place  on  any  pronoimcement 
supposedly  of  "  science, "when  uttered  authori- 
tatively, has  often  led  himianity  astray,  or  at 
least  by  a  very  zigzag  and  convoluted  path  in 
the  direction  of  the  real  truth.  Not  the  least 
of  the  injuries  done  to  the  human  race  by  the 
partial  misapprehension  of  greater  truths  has 
been  the  scientific  derision  of  the  view  that  the 
mother's  mental  state  affects  the  child  during 
the  nine  months  she  carries  it  before  birth.  A 
few  of  the  prophets  of  science,  wiser  than  the 
majority,  have  recognized  the  possibility  of 
antenatal  influence,  as  did  Alfred  Russell 
Wallace;  but  modem  science  is  only  just 
beginning  to  discover  the  necessary  analogous 


RACIAL  AND  IMPERIAL  ASPECTS  217 

facts  which  will  some  day  make  clear  and 
demonstrate  this  truth.  In  my  opinion  the 
truth  of  antenatal  influence  through  the 
mother  is  certain,  so  that  not  only  the  bodily 
condition,  but  the  mental  and  spiritual  out- 
look, of  the  mother  affects  the  child  she  is 
bearing.  For  the  purpose  of  this  essay  I  take 
the  above  view  as  axiomatic,  for  there  is  not 
space  here  to  discuss  the  evidence. 

What  can  be  the  effect  of  the  working  of 
this  law  on  the  race?  Do  we  not  see  it  all 
round  us  in  the  bitterness,  the  hatred,  the  in- 
human virulence  of  one  hirnian  being  towards 
another?  Such  dispositions  are  the  very 
counterpart  of  the  feelings  of  outraged  horror 
and  revolt  which  overwhelm  the  already  over- 
burdened mother,  when  she  feels  the  drag 
within  her  of  yet  another  child  she  did  not 
desire. 

It  is  sometimes  carelessly  argued  that  all 
through  the  centuries  of  the  past  women  have 
always  been  involuntary  mothers,  and  that  the 
human  race  in  times  past  had  a  greater  physi- 
cal perfection  than  it  has  today.    Our  know- 


2i8  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

ledge  of  the  past  is  partial,  a  few  mountain 
peaks  lit  by  sunlight  stand  out  of  the  crowded 
and  hazy  glimpses  of  the  forgotten,  and  we  see 
figures  of  the  stalwart  Viking,  the  beautiful 
Greek,  the  proud  Egyptian.  The  misty  tin- 
certainty  of  our  knowledge  of  times  past  covers 
the  myriads  who  have  crowded  into  life  merely 
to  be  extinguished  or  suppressed  by  early 
death.  Look  at  the  tombs  of  the  fifteenth  and 
sixteenth  centuries  in  our  churches,  where  the 
rows  of  sons  and  daughters  carved  upon  the 
sides  of  the  tombs  are  so  frequently  infants 
and  young  children  who  have  died  within  a 
year  or  two  of  birth !  It  is  true  that  in  those 
days,  in  all  the  days  imtil  quite  recent  times, 
women  in  the  majority  have  borne  meekly 
and  imresistingly  the  burden  of  crowded  lives, 
borne  perhaps  without  any  voiced — perhaps 
without  any  conscious — feeling  of  revolt. 
The  revolt,  the  bitterness,  which  is  now  find- 
ing expression  in  violence  and  uprising  in 
every  quarter  of  the  world,  is  the  result  not 
only  of  simple  crowding,  but  is  also  the  echo 
of  the  revolt  and  bitterness  and  horror  of 


RACIAL  AND  IMPERIAL  ASPECTS  219 

women  who  bore  that  burden  of  age-long 
tradition,  no  longer  passively,  but  bearing 
it  with  the  consciousness  that  it  should  not 
have  been  if  they  had  been  allowed  ftdl 
knowledge. 

For  nearly  one  hundred  years  there  has  been 
in  the  world  knowledge  which  might  long  ago 
have  been  universal  property,  which  could 
have  prevented  every  dreaded  conception, 
which  could  have  saved  anguish  and  burden 
and  deformity  colossal  in  its  harrowing  amotint. 
This  knowledge  has  been  withheld  from 
womanhood  nearly  all  over  the  world,  but  it 
has  not  been  annihilated.  Echoes  of  its  exist- 
ence, of  its  beneficent  potentialities  have 
travelled  from  one  to  the  other.  The  most 
overburdened,  the  most  ignorant,  has  faintly 
and  vaguely  realized  that  things  need  not  be 
so  cruel  for  her  as  they  are.  The  human 
mind,  tormented  in  any  way,  bows  itself  and 
can  almost  forget  the  torment  if  it  is  a  ftmda- 
mental  necessity  (as  humanity,  tormented  by 
the  shortness  of  life  and  the  imminence  of 
death,  forgets  these  things  and  laughs  and 


220  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 

dances),  yet  it  will  not  so  patiently  endure 
torment,  biirdens,  wrongs  which  it  consciously 
realizes  are  not  fundamental  necessities,  which 
are  indeed  imposed  upon  it  by  others,  collec- 
tively or  individually. 

For  more  than  a  generation  women  through- 
out the  world,  sometimes  clearly,  sometimes 
with  but  a  glimmering,  have  realized  that  the 
eternal  burden  and  outrage  of  the  overcrowded 
womb  is  not  a  fimdamental  necessity.  Those 
then  who  have  borne  more  and  ever  more 
children  than  they  desired,  imder  conditions 
that  outraged  them,  have  bred  into  the  plastic 
minds  that  were  forming  within  them  that 
sense  of  bitterness  and  revolt  which  is  now  so 
poisoning  human  relations. 

How  different  the  racial  value  of  desired 
and  beloved  children!  Minds  surroimded  by 
every  form  of  healthy  and  beautiful  mental 
and  bodily  activity  are  able  to  grow  in  help- 
ful harmony.  If  the  joyous  picture  of  a 
radiantly  beautiful  himianity  in  a  true  Utopia 
is  ever  to  be  achieved,  it  must  be  achieved 
by  creating  only  minds  and  bodies  desired 


RACIAL  AND  IMPERIAL  ASPECTS  221 

and  beloved  from  the  first  moment  of  their 
inception. 

Translated  into  terms  of  everyday  practice, 
I  maintain  that  the  only  hope  for  the  race  is  the 
conscious  elimination  of  all  diseased  and  over- 
crowded lives  before  their  conception,  by 
planning  only  to  conceive  those  for  whom 
adequate  provision  of  material  necessities  and 
a  loving  welcome  are  reasonably  to  be 
anticipated. 

When  once  the  women  of  all  classes  have 
the  fear  and  dread  of  undesired  maternity 
removed  from  them,  they  will  be  free  to 
put  all  their  delicate  strength  into  creating 
desired  and  beautiful  children.  And  it  is 
on  the  feet  of  those  children  that  the  race 
will  go  forward  into  the  promised  land  of 
Utopia. 

This,  the  first  foundation  of  Utopia,  could 
be  reached  in  my  lifetime,  had  I  the  power  to 
issue  inviolable  edicts.  Alas!  that  the  age  of  a 
beneficent  autocracy  has  never  been  and  is  not 
here  today!  Instead  of  achieving  in  two 
generations  the  great  result  on  the  himian  race 


222  THE  CONTROL  OF  PARENTHOOD 


n 


that  could  be  achieved,  it  will  be  necessary  to 
take  the  slower  means  of  creating  in  every 
individual  that  intense  consciousness  of  the 
race  which  will  make  it  impossible  for  indivi- 
duals ever  to  tolerate  the  coercion  of  enforced 
and  miserable  motherhood,  with  its  consequent 
poison  of  the  racial  stream. 


Ji  Selection  from  the 
Catalogue  of 

C.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 


Complete  Catftlo{(u«s  eent 
exi  application 


M  Book  for  Parents  and  Teachers 


The  Century  of  the  Child 

By  Ellen  Key 

Author  of  f*The  Education  of  the  Child,"  "Love  and 
Marriage,"  etc. 

Cr,  8vo^  with  Frontispiece,    iV*?/,  $1.50.     By  mat i,  $1.65 

The  Century  of  the  Child  has  gone  through 
more  than  twenty  German  editions  and  has  been 
published  in  several  European  countries.  Since 
Ellen  Key  severed  her  connection  with  the 
champions  of  women's  emancipation  twelve 
years  ago,  by  asserting  that  the  salvation  of 
women  depended  upon  a  nobler  conception  of 
her  natural  mission  as  wife  and  mother  rather 
than  upon  an  enlargement  of  her  sphere,  she  has 
devoted  herself  largely  to  educational  questions, 
and  her  seriousness  and  sincerity  of  ethical  pur- 
poses have  won  for  her  a  large  and  enthusiastic 
following.  Some  of  her  ideas  are  strongly 
revolutionary,  but  in  educational  questions  she 
shows  originality,  and  her  writings  have  a  wide 
appeal  among  progressive  people.  In  the  mat- 
ter of  the  education  of  children  she  is  the  foe  of 
mechanical  methods  and  recommends  a  large 
liberty  in  the  bringing-up  of  young  people. 


G.  P.  Pxitnaxn's  Sons 

New  York  London 


The  Renaissance  of 
Motherhood 

By  Ellen  Key 

Author  of  "  Love  and  Marriage/'  "The  Century  of 
the  Child,"  etc. 


In  this  volume,  the  author  of  "  Love 
and  Marriage "  considers  certain  prob- 
lems connected  with  woman's  most  im- 
portant mission.  She  calls  the  attention 
of  an  age  that  is  the  victim  of  divergent 
interests  to  the  ancient  claim  of  the  child 
upon  the  mother,  a  claim  that  represents 
the  most  elemental  of  altruistic  bonds. 
Ellen  Key  points  out  that  motherhood 
and  the  care  of  children  is  woman's  pre- 
rogative, and  that  the  division  of  labor 
between  the  sexes  is  a  natural  one.  An 
interesting  suggestion  toward  the  solu- 
tion of  certain  social  problems  is  made 
in  the  form  of  a  proposed  subsidizing  of 
motherhood. 

G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons 

New  York  London 


Radiant  Motherhood 

Marie  Carmichael  Slopes 

ScD.,  Ph.D. 


A  book  for  those  who  are  creating 
the  future,  novel  and  profound. 
The  glory,  power,  and  sacrifices 
of  motherhood  are  made  clear  by 
dealing  frankly  with  the  physical 
and  psychological  states  of  the 
mother-to-be,  nor  is  the  father-to- 
be  forgotten.  All  mothers  and 
fathers    should   know  this   book. 


G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons 

New  York  London 


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